A pitch giving a little help to bowlers resulted in another LoganCup match in which the first-innings advantage was settled on thefirst day, and when the lack of quality of much of the cricketwas compensated for by a goodly portion of interest andexcitement. Mashonaland batted poorly to total 170, whileMatabeleland looked to be matching them error for error until alusty ninth-wicket partnership took them into a 27-run lead bythe close, with two wickets still in hand.The pitch, according to the players, had more bounce than anormal BAC pitch, but as usual it had a bit of movement for theseamers early on, playing easier as the match went on.Matabeleland captain Mark Abrams therefore put Mashonaland in tobat on winning the toss and had instant reward, as Matabelelandtook wickets with the fifth balls of the first two overs. JohnRennie swung the first ball in and only just missed DarlingtonMatambanadzo’s off stump as he shouldered arms. Off the fifthball Matambanadzo, who had already flicked and missed outside offstump, nudged a catch to keeper Warren Gilmour without a run onthe board. At the other end, after a leg-bye, his replacementBrad Robinson drove a four through the covers but then presentedGilmour with another catch off a loose stroke outside off stump.Both batsmen revealed their lack of three-day experience andtechnique.Gavin Rennie looked in fine form, though, taking advantage ofsome loose bowling to play some fine strokes, especially off theback foot through the covers. After ten overs Mashonaland were42 for two, Rennie having 25 of them. Dirk Viljoen playedhimself in slowly, and the fifty partnership had just come upwhen John Rennie won a most unbrotherly lbw appeal against Gavin(32). Craig Evans flattered briefly but only to deceive, hittinghis first three Logan Cup fours of the tournament beforeobligingly hooking Mark Abrams down the throat of long-leg JasonHitz, making Mashonaland 87 for four.Viljoen was looking in good form, but as so often he failed to goon to a big score, caught at the wicket fishing outside off stumpfor 36 to Rennie, who persuaded his captain to keep him on forover after over. This was on the stroke of lunch, whenMashonaland were on 111 for five (Don Campbell 13).After the break, captain Gus Mackay was soon pulling and drivingfiercely in typical fashion, hitting four powerful fours and athree in his 19 before slashing Rennie to backward point – 133for seven. A solid partnership then formed between Campbell, whohad been most unconvincing at first, and Anton Hoffman, who byway of contrast was soon into his stride with some powerfulstrokes. Rennie carried on bowling until suddenly, in his 22ndover unchanged, he pulled a tendon and had to leave the field.Perhaps he was not properly warmed up. He had exploited theconditions superbly, getting both seam and swing, and taken fivegood wickets for 70.When the stand was finally broken, Hoffman (20) swinging a catchbackward of square leg to Abrams off Hitz at 170, the inningscollapsed without addition. Ian Engelbrecht came on to bowl hisfirst over of left-arm spin, and that proved to be enough.Campbell, trying to sweep, was yorked leg stump, and last manGary du Plessis sliced a catch to backward point, and Mashonalandhad put up another unconvincing batting performance, with most oftheir batsmen falling to soft dismissals. There was too muchextravagant strokeplay, a luxury when the pitch was rather slowand the ball not coming on to the bat. The innings lasted a mere45 overs.Mashonaland soon picked up a fortuitous wicket as Wisdom Siziba,before he had scored, flicked a ball off the full face of the batstraight into the chest of short-leg Brad Robinson, where itstuck. Mark Vermeulen immediately showed how he has grown inconfidence since his 197 against Midlands last weekend, takingtoll of some loose bowling with some cultured drives. Perhaps hewas a little over-confident at first, as he played a couple ofuppish strokes that just evaded the field, but he soon settleddown to reveal his genuine class, albeit against rathersecond-rate bowling.Charles Coventry kept him company with a useful 19 before beingcaught at the wicket driving outside the off stump, makingMatabeleland 49 for two at that stage. Dion Ebrahim also playedsome good strokes but did not last, being well caught slashing byCampbell, standing up to the medium-paced du Plessis. WithAbrams adjudged lbw to Viljoen without scoring, Matabeleland wentin to tea on 70 for four (Vermeulen 39).Afterwards Vermeulen continued his calm demolition of thebowling, playing some particularly exquisite cover drives. SanyoNyakutse looked uncertain at first, but then hit two off-sidefours off Hoffman and seemed to be settling down. But he wasthen deceived by the flight of Peacock and moved down the pitchto be yorked for 16, making Matabeleland 117 for five.Wicket-keeper Warren Gilmour immediately looked a soundreplacement, playing the bowling on its merits and allowingVermeulen to take centre stage.So well was Vermeulen batting that he looked set to challenge his197 of last week, but on reaching the eighties he became boggeddown. The bowling and fielding tightened up and he suddenlyfound himself unable to pierce the field. Eventually, with 87 tohis credit, he latched on to a short ball from Evans but hit itstraight down the throat of Dan Peacock on the midwicketboundary. Two more wickets quickly followed, as Gilmour (27) wascaught behind while fencing outside off stump, and IanEngelbrecht (0) was adjudged lbw despite playing well forward,both to Everton Matambanadzo.At 162 for eight, a first-innings lead by Matabeleland was now indoubt, but John Rennie and Jason Hitz battled it out, without arun coming off the bat for several overs. Finally Hitz slammedViljoen high to cow-shot corner for a four to take the lead, andfollowed it with another four to long leg. At which Rennie, notto be outdone, pulled Matambanadzo for two fours and then Viljoenfor a six. He continued to hit merrily until the close, whenMatabeleland finished on 197 for eight, with himself on 20 andHitz 10.

As someone mentioned very early in the piece, “This was old fashioned Test cricket”. That was exactly the truth. With England scoring 221 while losing 5 wickets in 89.4 overs, the sold-out crowd of about 19,000 paying patrons could not be dissatisfied. Honors would be about even too, with England, at 159-0 at one stage, winning the first part of the day, up to exactly the tea interval, then allowing that initiative to slip away somewhat as the West Indies rebounded to take five wickets, one immediately before tea, the rest after the second interval of the day. Yes, it was an old fashioned Test day.When Jimmy Adams won the toss and elected to field first, he took the easier, and in my mind, the better, way out. Okay, the pitch was supposed to do nothing, as the recent Oval pitches have done, for the faster bowlers. If there has been a better batting track during the Test series so far, I have not seen it, but bowl the West Indies had to. When comparing the relative returns of the West Indies team, the bowlers and their efforts far outweighed the batters, so with a 60-40 equation to the bowlers, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Jimmy Adams had no choice but to field first, especially with the thought of trying to square the series at the back of their minds.Mike Atherton and Marcus Trescothick started well, and I was sure that Atherton was good for a big innings here. He is much too good a batsman not to score at the right time, especially on this pitch, and he was simply due some runs. My feeling was amplified when he and Trescothick took nearly six overs to get the score board moving. They simply were taking their time, with no rush at all. I was sure then that the West Indies were in for a hard day.By the time lunch had arrived, with England on 66-0 from 29 overs, one thing was already very evident. For once, Ambrose and Walsh were struggling to maintain the impeccable length and especially line that they are so renowned for. For once, the two great fast bowlers took a session off. That progressed to the second session, as both Atherton, playing majestically, and Trescothick, playing with the aplomb of a veteran after just a few Test matches, looked as if nothing would remove them. Then, wonder of all wonders, Mahendra Nagamootoo, the leg-spinner, struck.Actually Nagamootoo bowled pretty well. He finished his first day of Test cricket, the 235th (only) person to have played Test cricket for the West Indies, with a very credible 24-7-63-2; not bad figures at all for a player who was brought on this tour to, more or less, learn something about bowling, after being rewarded with this tour for his 31 wickets in the Busta Cup first class series back in the Caribbean this year. That he was selected at all for this Test must have depended greatly on the fitness of the other faster bowlers. He held his own well.Nagamootoo is a nephew of that wonderful Guyanese and West Indies left-handed batsmen, Alvin Kallicharran. Indeed, he could well have been selected, too, because he has just made his maiden first class century, against Somerset; selected for his first Test because of his batting, even though he is supposedly a leg-spinner. He is also the 4th such bowler that the West Indies have used on tours in the last four years, the others being Dininath Ramnarine and Rajendra Dhanraj, both of Trinidad & Tobago, and Rawl Lewis, of Grenada. At least, Nagamootoo looked more aggressive that any of his predecessors, even if he does not turn the ball as much as perhaps Lewis and Ramnarine.Once Thescothick had gone for a well made 78, on the tea interval, and Nasser Hussein was also dismissed in the same over, two balls after that interval, for no score, the West Indies were in with a fighting chance of winning the day. The West Indies continued their afternoon effort well with another support bowler, Nixon McLean, beating Mike Atherton, who looked certain for his 15 Test hundred, for pace and removed his off bail with a good off-cutter; Atherton out for an excellent 83, including twelve superlative fours. His only regret could be that he did not eventually make 100. Then both Alec Stewart, playing at home, and Michael Vaughan, were out LBW, and a day when the West Indies would have wondered if they had made the wrong decision came back to some parity.My own belief is that England are still ahead somewhat, as “real” batsmen Graeme Hick and Graeme Thorpe still remain. Hick was involved, remember, with a partnership with Vaughn, at the last Test at Leeds, which was worth 98, the winning partnership of that game. England’s ploy of keeping the extra batsman was again paying off well.Come Day 2, the West Indies have the option of taking the new ball. Though Ambrose and Walsh did look somewhat out of sorts early in the 1st Day, and somewhat tired at the end of it, Adams will have no trouble in making that decision to get that new ball working first thing in the morning. If the West Indies are to win this game, they must bowl England out before lunch on Day 2, for less than 275. Then they must set about batting for two days. On this pitch, perhaps the words of the West Indies Assistant Coach, Jeffrey Dujon, would come to pass:”We must endeavor to bat only once,” he says, “then we can put the pressure on England to save the game if we have at least a first innings lead of about 150-200.”That is true, and on such a pitch as this, it can be done, but Brian Lara and company will have to bat with blood in their eyes, fight to the death. England might have something to say about that.

With the help of a timely unbeaten half century by SS Raul, Orissaplaced themselves in the safety zone when they ended the second day at147 for 2 in reply to Bihar’s first innings score of 292 in their EastZone Ranji Trophy match at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur on Monday.Resuming at the overnight score of 190 for 6, Bihar’s Dhoni (39) andVikash Kumar (20) put on 45 runs for the seventh wicket. Thereafterthe other two lower order batsmen M Diwakar (25) and Shahid Khan (21)helped the score along to 292. Debasish Mohanty (3 for 41) and Barick(3 for 97) were the successful bowlers for Orissa.The Orissa openers BBCC Mahapatra (25) and P Das (39 not out) gave agood start for the visitors, adding 36 runs in just 7.3 overs.Mahapatra was the first to be dismissed when he was trapped leg beforeto Dhiraj Kumar. Then P Mullick (20) joined Das to take the score to63. Mullick fell in the 21st over for a catch to rajiv Kumar offDhiraj. The fall of Mullick brought SS Raul (51) to the crease and heaccompanied Das to the close of play. Orissa still need to go a longway, traling by 145 runs with eight of their wickets intact.

A feast of runs in the sunshine at Lord’s produced a magnificent seventh wicket partnership, which ended just one short of a double century, took Nottinghamshire to 409 for eight at stumps.In the process, Kevin Pietersen reached an unbeaten maiden first-class century and his stand with Paul Franks broke the seventh wicket record of 177 for Nottinghamshire against Middlesex which had stood since 1885.Franks, who hit his first half-century of the season fell fifteen short of what would also have been a maiden first-class hundred. He was dismissed straight after the second new ball was taken by Tim Bloomfield who trapped him leg before wicket and then with the next ball brought about a similar dismissal of Andy Harris and Nottinghamshire were 390 for eight.Franks played with ease and confidence as the innings progressed and he hit so freely that in one over from off spinner Paul Weekes he took four boundaries.But the day belonged to the six-foot-four-inch tall, South Africa born Pietersen whose entertaining, unbeaten innings of 135 lasted over four hours and containined eighteen boundaries and two sixes. With his unblemished, 187-ball innings, he brought great comfort to Nottinghamshire who were beginning to struggle on 134 for four when he came to the crease.He settled into fluent strokeplay quickly and used his feet well against the two spinners and took advantage of the short boundary on the mound stand side of the ground. His timing was perfect in his cuts and he drove elegantly on either side of the wicket. The finest shot of his innings was when he came down the wicket to drive Phil Tufnell to the extra-cover boundary.Middlesex pace bowler, James Hewitt, brought into the side in the absence of their injured captain Angus Fraser, had earlier struck twice after Nottinghamshire had elected to bat.After half-an-hour’s play the visitors were 38 for two with Hewitt claiming the wickets in his fourth and eighth overs. Guy Welton was the first to go, pushing off the back foot to be caught in the cover.Hewitt then removed Greg Blewett who mistimed his pull and top-edged to square leg for 12. But a third wicket partnership, between left-handers Darren Bicknell and Usman Afzaal which brought the hundred up on the board in the twenty eighth over and seemed to be developing so well, was broken three overs before lunch.Bicknell, having faced 96 balls and hitting five boundaries, was caught at slip from a top edge as he attempted to sweep. He had scored 38 and Nottinghamshire were 106 for three. After lunch Middlesex claimed three more wickets.Hewitt took his third having Afzaal caught at second slip for 43 and with the next two falling cheaply, Nottinghamshire had lost three wickets in a space of an hour to be reduced to 191 for six before Pietersen and Franks took charge dominated the play.

Sunil Gavaskar has listed 31 idols in his book of the same namepublished in 1983. Left arm spinner Rajinder Goel figures in the elitegroup. Goel who took a record 640 wickets in the Ranji Trophy, India’snational competition, never had the opportunity to play for thecountry, apart from one unofficial Test against Sri Lanka (thenCeylon) in 1964-65. Had he been born in any other era, he would almostcertainly have got a break at the highest level, but Bishen Bedi’spresence put paid to his aspirations. As he says, it was a game thatfate played on him (“yeh sab kismat ka khel hai”). Despite theheartache, Goel’s simplicity and good manners endeared him to one andall, from a dreaded dacoit imprisoned in Gwalior jail to Gavaskar.Goel was born in United Punjab’s Narwana town in 1940 and played hisfirst Ranji Trophy game for South Punjab in 1958-59. He later alsorepresented Delhi and Haryana. Goel’s bag of 640 wickets in 123 gamesat 17.15 is a record unlikely to be broken. In a recent interview toCricInfo, Goel bared his thoughts.When did you first begin playing cricket and when did you firstestablish yourself as a player to reckon with?I used to play right from my childhood. I was in Vaish High Schoolwhere one of my teachers, Lala Krishan Dayal, who was a good playerhimself, taught me the rudiments of the game. After that I wasselected for Punjab and subsequently North Zone. My performance wasgood and I was chosen for the All India camp in Chail under thesupervision of Lala Amarnath. So that’s how I came up.You took 640 wickets in the Ranji Trophy but were still confined todomestic cricket. What was the reason?Yes, I played well in domestic cricket but at that time every zone inthe country had great bowlers. Bishen Bedi established himself in theIndian team and performed very well, taking 266 Test wickets. So I hadfew chances to play at the highest level. But he was a great bowler,so I have no regrets about it.But when you look back on your career, in some corner of your heartthere must be a tinge of regret that you didn’t play for India?It was not written in my fate to play Test cricket. I used to play formy own pleasure and when I got wickets it used to feel good. Haryanawon many matches and the state grew from strength to strength. Therewere so many spinners but only one left armer could play for India andBishen Bedi was the man. So I didn’t really feel cut up about it.But being such a consistent wicket taker every season, did you everfeel any injustice?You should ask the selectors. My job is to play cricket and performwell. The rest is upto the selectors to choose me or not. Maybe theythought I was not good enough. In my opinion as long as Bishen Bedicontinued to play, other left armers like Shivalkar, Hyder Ali, DilipDoshi, Dhiraj Parsana, none of them got a chance.So do you blame it on luck, selectors or the players who came into theteam before you?I think I was born at the wrong time. In my days all the left armerswho played from different zones were good. Some of the blame can alsobe laid at fate. I was called for the Bangalore Test against CliveLloyd’s team in 1974/75 when I was in form and bowling very well. Bediwas not there for that match; he was removed from the team for somereason. I was sure that I would play but the evening before the Testwhen the team was announced, my name was missing. It’s all a game fatehas played on me.You did play a lot of games against visiting sides. Were there anymemorable moments among them?When Kim Hughes’ Auatralian team came to India (in 1979/80) I tooknine wickets including 6/103 in the first innings, bowling Hughes.Bishen Bedi had left the game, so I was hopeful that I might beselected at least this time but it was not to be and I felt a littlesad.You had a very long career. Was there any time when you felt that youwere not fit to continue?I never thought about it. I always used to tell everyone that the dayI realised the truth that my fitness wasn’t upto the mark, I wouldquit then and there. When I finally left the game in 1984/85, evenduring that season I had 39 wickets in six matches which I think wasthe highest in the country. So at no time did I feel I was unfit tocontinue.I have heard that a dacoit once wrote a letter to you. Could you tellus what it was about?It gives me great pleasure to relate this incident and I have done somany times before. There was this dacoit Bukha Singh Yadav who waslodged in Gwalior jail. I got a letter from him after playing a matchand everyone at home was a bit apprehensive. But as soon as I read it,I felt very happy and even replied to him. He had congratulated me fortaking 600 wickets in the Ranji Trophy. I’m probably the onlycricketer in India whose performance was recognised even by a dacoit.The game has changed a lot since your days. What changes do youcomprehend?Yes, there is a lot of difference in the way the game was played thosedays. Today there is more of quantity but less of quality. These daysthe facilities are very good. Where did we have such good grounds inour time? If you made one dive, there would be bruises on our handsand feet. There weren’t such good bats either.Do you fear that ODIs are becoming a threat to Test cricket,especially to cricket as an art form?These days, people are so busy, they don’t have the time, and preferto watch ODIs. In ODIs if you play a cover drive and the ball goes tofine leg for four, then it’s a good shot. It doesn’t matter how itcomes, runs are the bottomline. Having played so many one-days, theplayers are beginning to play the same way in Test cricket too. Ifit’s just a matter of making Test cricket as popular, why don’t youmake the first and second innings of limited overs duration. You musthave seen that when the Australian team visited here, the grounds werefull for all three Test matches and there was a lot of publicinterest.In your days there were a lot of great spinners, not just in India butoutside as well, like Underwood and Gibbs. What was so special aboutthese guys?That was the era of spinners and all of them used to work hard.Bowlers these days have begun to give greater emphasis to batting andfielding. But we gave bowling the most attention and in practice weused to relentlessly iron out our weaknesses. You don’t find suchdevotion in the kids these days. They take net practice as a formalityand bowl to two or three batsmen in the nets and leave. When there areso many facilities, you have Academies opening all over the place andso many senior players ready to guide them. I saw all three Testsagainst Australia. Harbhajan Singh was the only bowler who looked liketaking a wicket. All the other bowlers I saw had no nip or speed offthe wicket and they did not turn the ball significantly either. Eventhough we got turning tracks in one or two games, only Harbhajan couldmake effective use of it.As chairman of the national junior committee, how would you evaluatethe progress of the junior players?We’ve been fortunate with the 3-4 teams sent out in the last couple ofyears. In 2000, the Under-19 boys won the World Cup in Sri Lanka, thenthe Under-15 team lifted the Asia Cup in Malaysia and finally we hadthe Under-17 team winning the Asia Cup in Bangladesh earlier thisyear. The junior selection committee watches all the domestic matchesand we’ve chosen very balanced sides and earned the rewards for it.What are your future plans?I’m the head coach of the Satpriya Cricket Academy in Rohtak and Iwould just like to transfer all my knowledge to the boys here. Ask meafter 2-3 years and I can show you some of the fruits of my work.

New Zealand might have only a 33% success rate in tri-series One-Day International tournaments but CLEAR Black Caps wicket-keeper Adam Parore says last year’s ICC KnockOut win in Nairobi had been an important step for the side towards improving that percentage.Just before flying out from Christchurch today for Colombo with the side for the 23rd three or four-nation tournament New Zealand has played in, Parore said that for a couple of years this New Zealand team had known they were capable of doing something, without ever having achieved it.Going to Sri Lanka was another seeming Mission Impossible. India has just completed a tour of Zimbabwe, while Sri Lanka were at home in their favourable conditions. The New Zealanders were coming out of the coldest winter in this country for nearly 30 years.But adapting to foreign conditions is becoming second nature to Black Cap sides and Parore believes the lessons of Nairobi could be an influence in the Coca-Cola Cup.”To know you can do it, and then to go out and finally do it, fills you with a lot of confidence,” he said.”Watching the professional golfers and tennis players on television in big tournaments they know that to win they have to go through unbeaten.”There are two or three moments in matches when, if you want to win, you have to put up and do it.”And there is no substitute for doing it.”Until you do it and then realise what you have done, you don’t appreciate how much it takes,” he said.That lesson was the most valuable thing to come out of the Nairobi success, Parore said.”Thinking you can do something, and actually doing something, are two completely different things,” he said.Having been one of the heaviest worked players during the last season, Parore relished the chance for a break after the series equalling victory against Pakistan.But it had been long enough and he pronounced himself impatient to get underway in Colombo.”There is only so much running, batting and training you can do each day. I don’t think I’ve ever been so keen to get back into action as I am now,” he said.Parore said that in hindsight the last season did not seem that tough and he felt the side came out of a difficult summer pretty well.It had been disappointing to lose key players at vital times. But in spite of those worries, the side had achieved some good results.Younger players had been brought in and had been exposed to top level cricket and were now more experienced as a result.He said the inclusion of players who had been through the Academy process had made it a lot easier for those introduced to adapt to their situation.There was a higher level of professionalism among the younger players but they still found the standard of cricket a bit of a shock.But New Zealand had been lucky with the players who came in last summer as they had developed well.As far as New Zealand’s record in tournaments was concerned, he said that was probably due to the fact that they all required a degree of adaptation and that invariably as the side played more games, their record improved in tournaments.”But because we are often coming out of our winter, we are having to start so far back on the grid and when you go to the sub continent you are going into the hardest conditions in which to have a cricket tour.”Personally, I enjoy the sub continent. It is a good place to tour. You have grounds that are full of roaring spectators who know their cricket. They know who you are, what your average is and all about you,” he said.Parore recalled holidaying in Dubai after the summer and finding that drinks stewards around the hotel pool he was staying in were able to talk to him about quite technical matters of the game.”They know what they are talking about and were able to give some quite technical analysis of Sachin Tendulkar’s batting,” he said.Parore said he only needed a few weeks off before he was keen to get back into action. Three months had been two months too long and he said he couldn’t wait to get on the plane and on the way.He didn’t see the tournament as the start of another tough new season. It was an interlude with a six-week break before the next tour to Pakistan when the Black Caps get down to the real business of the summer.TRI NATIONS RECORDS

Played Won Lost Tied Abandoned1980/81 Australia, India, New Zealand 14 7 6 11982/83 Australia, England, New Zealand 12 6 61985/86 Australia, India, New Zealand 10 3 6 1Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand 2 1 1India, Pakistan, New Zealand 2 0 21987/88 Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand 10 4 6India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand 4 2 21989/90 Australia, India, New Zealand 5 1 4Pakistan, Australia, Bangladesh, NZ 3 1 21990/91 Australia, England, New Zealand 10 3 71993/94 Australia, South Africa, New Zealand 8 3 4 1Australia, Sri Lanka, India,UAE, Pakistan, New Zealand 3 1 21994/95 India, West Indies, New Zealand 4 0 3 1South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, NZ 6 0 6Australia, India, South Africa, NZ 4 2 21996/97 Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand 5 1 3 1Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand 3 1 21997/98 Australia, South Africa, New Zealand 8 2 6India, Australia, New Zealand 4 1 3Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand 6 0 2 42000/01 South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand 2 0 2Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand 3 1 2Total 128 40 79 1 8

Sachin Tendulkar is expected to be fit for India’s tour of SouthAfrica, starting on October 1, the doctor, who is treating themaestro’s foot injury, said on Tuesday."He (Sachin) should recover from his foot injury by the end ofSeptember. I am hopeful that he will be ready to go to South Africa,”Anant Joshi told NDTV in an interview for Star News.Tendulkar had to miss out on the current Sri Lanka tour due to a footfracture which he suffered during India’s recent Zimbabwe tour.”We will take another CT scan after three to four weeks to see how thehealing is progressing,” Joshi said adding that in the meantime theywill also work on protected footwear so that when he gets back therewere no chances of his again getting injured.Normally any injury of a lower limb takes four to six weeks to join orgum up and another four to six weeks to really consolidate and becomestrong enough to take pressure, Joshi said while describingTendulkar’s injury as “fracture of great toe of the right foot.”However, he said in case of players like Tendulkar, who areoptimistic, the recovery was fast.Asked if the injury was due to overdose of cricket, the doctor said”no”. “In Sachin’s case it has nothing to do with overdose of cricket.It is a plain simple accident which could happen to anybody.”Describing his injury as “temporary halt”, Tendulkar said “if I am fitI would like to go tomorrow and play the Test match. I am just keepingmy fingers crossed and hope it will get better as soon as possible andget back to action. What else I can do?”Expressing his eagerness to play against South Africa, Tendulkar said,”South Africa is one of the top sides and I am looking forward to gothere and play against them. I hope to get back in action as soon aspossible.”About the pressure from the public for being away from the game, thebatting maestro said “Sometimes it is difficult to answer each andevery individual but I totally understand their feelings. I feel happythat people are concerned about me and want me to get back to action.All I can say is I am trying my best.”Asked if he thought too much cricket was resulting in injuries among alot of players, Tendulkar said “I don’t want to say that we haveplayed a lot of cricket and that’s why there were so many injuries.But at the same time I would like to play some amount of cricketprovided there are some breaks in between. This help players recoverand recharge their batteries. They can also spend some time with thefamilies and go out to play with a fresh mind. And even sitting athome, one can analyse his game and get better.”Though it was a forced break, Tendulkar said he enjoyed each and everymoment of it with his family. "It was a different feeling altogetherto have breakfast with my son in his school which would not have beenpossible, if I would not have got injured,” he said.

The daughter of Pakistan opening batsman Saeed Anwar has died. Bismah was three-and-a-half and passed away after a prolonged illness. Saeed played in the Asian Test Championship game against Bangladesh in Multan but has now returned to Lahore.

Bangladesh were fearing bankruptcy after New Delhi said cricketingties between Pakistan and India will only resume after thenormalization of political relations between the two neighbors.The director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Ashraf-ul-Haq,talking exclusively to Dawn, further said he would condemn India’swithdrawal from the Asian Test Championship during the Asian CricketCouncil (ACC) meeting at Lahore on Oct 20 and 21.”Bangladesh will go bankrupt if India continues to run away fromplaying Pakistan. Their decision to pull out from the competition hasbadly affected the budget of the BCB as the profits from thechampionship would have been invested on the development of the gamein Bangladesh,” he said.Ashraf believed that Pakistan and Sri Lanka might survive from thehuge financial setback.”We are the newest Test nation and need funds. We don’t have the moneyrequired to uplift the standard of the game. But if we don’t earnmoney, the sport will die. It would be a tragedy if a Test nation hasto face this fate,” Ashraf said.”The ACC can invest that money in Bangladesh but that would be immoraland unethical as that money is for countries like Singapore, Malaysia,Nepal and others.” he said.Ashraf said BCB had planned a tri-nation one-day series also involvingIndia and Pakistan in Dec and the eve of Pakistan’s two-Test tour toDhaka to cover up for the losses and generate some money throughsponsorships and television rights. But feared that that proposalmight not materialize under the present circumstances.Although India has confirmed to play in the competition but there is apossibility of it withdrawing once again and that too at last minute.Similarly, Pakistan’s position is also not clear.”I think Pakistan will be justified in not playing India in Bangladeshuntil India tours Pakistan. But Pakistan board has always been kindand helpful and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) understands what willhappen to us if money-generating continental events were not played,”he said, “I sincerely hope that Pakistan will show a big heart as theywere the ones who proposed us for Test status and supported all theway.”Ashraf said he would condemn India in the ACC meeting which followsthe eight-day ICC executive board’s meeting in October in Lahore. “Ican’t go there and say India did the right thing. Of course, I willcondemn India,” he said.However, he added the ACC was not in a position to penalize India.”How can the ACC penalize India at this stage? But it is a lesson foreveryone and hopefully there will be a clause to impose penalties on anation which defaults.”He suggested that the country defaulting should be fined 50% from theincome through title sponsorships and televisions rights. Just torecap, Pakistan will host the Asia Cup one-day tournament in Aug-Septin 2002. Besides the four Asian Test playing countries, two qualifierswill also participate.Ashraf disagreed that the game’s governing body could do anything toIndia. He said the Asian Test Championship had nothing to do with theICC as it was a continental tournament.