Australia won the VB series in style and in the process showed that there were two ways of going about the winning business. The first is to crush the opponent underfoot, show no mercy, take no prisoners.This Australia did in the first final at Sydney. It was a performance meant to silence Nasser Hussain who had harboured some illusions about causing an upset.The Australians were awesome and the way that Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden went about reaching a modest target showed almost contempt for England’s bowling.The second way was to take the game to the wire and then, when all seemed to be lost, hand the ball to Brett Lee and to do, what we all hope in Pakistan, Shoaib Akhtar will do in a crunch match in the World Cup – bowl fast, bowl deadly straight, and in the block-hole. Lee did that, on cue.Clearly, Australia was sending out a message. It is a red-hot favourite for the World Cup for very good reasons. It is a red-hot team. Does this make the World Cup a one-horse race? Not necessarily.There are far better teams than England and they will not fold as unceremoniously as England did. But they will have to play out of their skins to stop Australia.And I am not being patriotic when I suggest that Pakistan, on its day, is the world’s most dangerous team. “On its day” is a tough pre-qualification. But the talent is there and for Shoaib Akhtar, the moment of truth has arrived. There is tremendous back-up for him, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Abdul Razzaq, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shahid Afridi. But Pakistan will need Shoaib to fire on all cylinders. This could be his tournament and he will need to stamp his authority from the first game that Pakistan plays and which happens to be against Australia.All teams start with a clean slate. What has happened in the past has no bearing except in not repeating the mistakes that were made. An American Indian saying is appropriate: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”Pakistan will need better leadership than was shown on its tour of South Africa. Leadership means more than giving orders. It is the skill of getting the best out of others, the fostering of togetherness, the acrobatics of being a leader of the team while being a member of it. Both equal and first among equals.I don’t wish to seem to be harping on the subject but Pakistan teams, in the past, have been their own worst enemies. It is not uncommon for friendships to form within a team, friendships on the basis of common interests and common pursuits. This may give the perception of groupism. But the pre-eminent loyalty should be to the team’s cause and personality clashes should be put on hold. The PCB chairman has spoken to the senior players, as has Imran Khan. Both would have delivered the same message and there is no reason to doubt that the message will not be heeded.The function arranged at the Gaddafi Stadium to wish farewell to the team may have ended in a somewhat disorderly fashion but the large number of cricket fans who had assembled demonstrated unwavering support for the team.The players should be encouraged by this support. No team, not even Australia can win, if it does not give its best. In the World Cup, something more than the best will be needed.In the meanwhile, efforts are still being made to derail the matches in Zimbabwe. We now learn that the England players are not keen to play there, troubled by their conscience. That’s a bit rich. The team received anonymous threats in their hotel rooms. The threats could have been the work of some prankster or it could have been some “dirty tricks” by vested interests.If the England team does not want to play in Zimbabwe, it should simply forfeit its points, a small sacrifice given that they are conscience-stricken.Ironic that they should feel so strongly about the white farmers in Zimbabwe and have nothing to say about the prospects of thousand of Iraqis being killed when Tony Blair sends his army (air force and navy) into war. But that would be bringing in politics into sports. Precisely. But then, I suppose it is possible to have a selective conscience. Some call it double standards.

Jonty Rhodes’ future in the World Cup is uncertain after South Africa’s star fielder fractured a bone in his hand against Kenya.Rhodes sustained the injury as he dived for the ball at point during the Kenyan innings and was taken off the field in considerable pain.”He was examined by physio Shane Jabaar and sent for x-rays which showed a break,” revealed captain Shaun Pollock. “The doctors then sent him through to Johannesburg to see a specialist to find out the extent of the injury.”Rhodes, 33, who is renowned for his fielding ability, is playing in his fourth World Cup.”We will wait for the news but perhaps we can look at a similar situation toAndre Joubert in the 1995 World Cup,” Pollock added, referring to rugby player Joubert’s broken hand eight years ago. The full-back spent time in a hyperbaric chamber to quicken his recovery.Pollock was nonetheless heartened by his side’s 10-wicket victory following their defeat by the West Indies in the tournament opener.”After the loss on Sunday, there were certain points that we wanted to work on and we wanted to make sure we were clinical in our approach. We bowled prettywell and were pretty good in all areas.”The Kenyan captain, Steve Tikolo, could not hide his disappointment, but put his team’s showing down to nerves in their first World Cup game.”We lost wickets at regular intervals and we didn’t bat our full compliment of overs and that didn’t help us at all. We will have to go back and look intothe areas where we went wrong and try and rectify them for the next game. Our aim was to make the Super Sixes and we still believe we can do that.”South Africa meet New Zealand next, at the Wanderers on Sunday in what could well be a crucial game for both sides.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body for cricket. The organisation currently generates turnover of £60 million and wishes to appoint a Commercial Director to develop revenue from existing sources, generate new income streams, attract new customers and improve customer satisfaction levels to achieve a turnover of a minimum of £100 million within 5 years.The Position

• Reports to the Chief Executive as a member of the senior executive team.
• Responsible for commercial affairs – both marketing and sales – of cricket in England and Wales. The role encompasses revenue generating activities and the wider marketing and servicing activities, i.e. brand development, customer awareness, pricing and promotion and commercial partner servicing.
• The Commercial Director will lead a team of 9 people in the Sales, Sponsorship Services and Marketing functions of the Department.

The Qualifications

• 10 years of successful management experience in a significant and complex business. Of graduate calibre, the successful candidate will have developed their career in the sales and marketing department of a large, consumer driven company or in a substantial agency.
• The successful candidate is likely to be currently in a senior marketing position and can demonstrate rapid progression through roles of increasing responsibility. A track record of negotiating and implementing joint venture agreements and/or significant third party contracts is desirable with a proven ability to negotiate at Chairman/CEO/Board level

Please apply quoting reference Finn – 3 with full career and salary details to: Ian Jones & Partners, 5 Aldford Street, London, W1K 2AF or email: [email protected]

India’s scheduled tour of Pakistan next month was conclusively called off after Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya stated that the team would not be able to undertake the tour because of a government ban on bilateral cricket series with Pakistan.”It is known to everybody that the government is against bilateral cricketties with Pakistan,” Dalmiya told the Press Trust of India (PTI).”We had sought permission for the team to travel to Pakistan but have been told that the government’s position remains unchanged,” explained SK Nair, BCCI secretary. “The government has informed us that the security scenario in Pakistan is not conducive for an Indian tour.”Following that announcement, Pakistan for its part pulled out of a scheduled tour to India next year. “BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya informed us that though they were willing to tour Pakistan, the Indian government has not given them the approval,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesperson Samiul Hassan told PTI in Islamabad.According to the 10-year Test schedule drawn up by the International Cricket Council (ICC), India and Pakistan are scheduled to play four bilateral series until 2010.

Only 14 hours after the 2000th one-day international concludes, the 2001st will get under way as Dhaka plays host to the TVS Cup – yet another triangular tournament featuring one team which exceeded all expectations at the World Cup, and two which flopped badly.Not surprisingly, most of India’s senior players have preferred to rest their weary bodies rather than slog through another ODI series. The absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra means that India will be without most of their World Cup stars – Tendulkar and Dravid made 41% of the total runs scored off the bat for India, while Srinath and Nehra took 31 of the 82 wickets.All this also means an exciting opportunity for some fringe players to prove their worth at the international level. Importantly, the new incumbents are all fresh from a successful stint with India’s A team in the West Indies: Gautam Gambhir and Abhijit Kale collected a bagful of runs, while Avishkar Salvi and Amit Mishra were the leading wicket-takers. Salvi was especially impressive with his ability to generate pace and bounce on the slow West Indian wickets. The lack of strong reserve strength has for long been the bane of Indian cricket – so if the current crop of youngsters put in a strong performance, India could gain plenty from a seemingly meaningless one-day tournament.The Indians will also be helped by the conditions in Dhaka, which are no different from those they experience at home. Sourav Ganguly did mention, though, that the absence of Andrew Leipus, the physiotherapist, will be keenly felt: “It will be hot there so we needed a physio like him.” Fortunately for the teams, all the matches will be played under lights.If the tournament presents India with an opportunity to build towards a bright future, then for South Africa it’s a chance to make a break from the past. Graeme Smith, 22, takes charge of a team which is still trying to shake off the legacy of the Hansie Cronje era. “My job is to instill freshness in the team,” said Smith, who made it clear that he wanted to distance himself and his team from the Cronje phase: “I never played with Cronje and so have no memories of him. That age is over.”Brave words those, but South Africa have the onerous task of filling the formidable void left by the retirements of Allan Donald, Jonty Rhodes and Gary Kirsten, and the absence of Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje. To make matters worse, Jacques Kallis was forced to withdraw to attend to his ailing father, though he is expected to join the tour later.The inclusion, finally, of the hugely talented left-hander Jacques Rudolph – one of six new faces outside the original World Cup squad – is a step in the right direction. Smith’s biggest test, though, will be his ability to carry along the remaining senior members in the party – Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher and Herschelle Gibbs.Bangladesh, who face India in the first match on Friday, are the third team in the contest, and barring a miracle, are likely to exit from the competition long before the final. Despite a miserable World Cup, where their only points came from a washed-out game, Bangladesh have included only one new face for this tournament – 20-year-old medium-pacer Tareq Aziz. That they have been forced to revert to tried-and-tested failures – Akram Khan, Mehrab Hossain and Javed Omar all make a comeback – indicates the lack of talent in their cupboard.The Bangladesh board did the inevitable by sacking their captain and coach, but the results with Khaled Mahmud at the helm are likely to be little different from those that his predecessor, Khaled Masud, experienced.SquadsBangladesh: Javed Omar, Mehrab Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Habibul Bashar, Khaled Mahmud (capt), Akram Khan, Alok Kapali, Tushar Imran, Khaled Masud (wk), Sanwar Hossain, Mohammad Rafique, Tapash Baisya, Manjural Islam, Tareq Aziz, Talha Jubair.India: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Abhijit Kale, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel (wk), Sanjay Bangar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Amit Mishra, Aavishkar Salvi, Sarandeep Singh.South Africa: Herschelle Gibbs, Graeme Smith (capt), Boeta Dippenaar, Neil McKenzie, Jacques Kallis, Jacques Rudolph, Andrew Hall, Mark Boucher (wk), Shaun Pollock, Robin Peterson, Paul Adams, Allan Dawson, Charl Willoughby, Mahkaya Ntini.

Kent v Middlesex, Canterbury
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Ed Smith scored a fine century as Kent took the first steps towards prising themselves off the foot of the first division, closing on a healthy 291 for 4 against Middlesex. Smith began slowly, and by the time rain prompted an early tea, he had eased to 48 not out. But he more than doubled that in the final session, adding 132 for the third wicket with Greg Blewett. Both men fell in the space of five balls shortly before the close, however, Smith being one of three wickets for the persevering Joe Dawes.Lancashire v Essex, Old Trafford
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James Anderson virtually guaranteed himself a place in next week’s first Test against Zimbabwe at Lord’s, by sandwiching his England captain, Nasser Hussain, in the middle of a hat-trick, as Essex stumbled to 97 for 7 before lunch. At 21, Anderson is the youngest player ever to take a hat-trick for Lancashire, and the first since Mike Watkinson in 1992. Peter Martin swept up the middle order, and it took a plucky 57 from James Foster, another man with half an eye on Lord’s next week, to carry Essex to the vaguely respectable total of 215. By the close however, Ian Sutcliffe has reached 50 not out in reply, and Lancashire were sitting pretty on 127 for 1, with Carl Hooper waiting in the wings after being cleared by the ECB to make his debut.Surrey v Leicestershire, The Oval
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Earlier this week, Darren Maddy and Brad Hodge took Loughborough UCCE to the cleaners with a brace of unbeaten double-centuries and a stand of 436. Today, they found the County Champions a rather tougher proposition, however, adding just six runs for the third wicket as Surrey took command at The Oval. Leicestershire were bundled out for 200 in 51.3 overs, although that was a considerable improvement on their earlier efforts – Azhar Mahmood took four of the first five wickets to fall, and it took a long-handled 65 from 58 balls from their captain Phil DeFreitas, to salvage the innings after Leicestershire had slumped to 70 for 7. DeFreitas then trapped Ian Ward early in Surrey’s reply, but Alec Stewart and Mark Ramprakash made a brace of unbeaten half-centuries to close on 182 for 2.Division TwoDurham v Worcestershire, Stockton
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Bad weather, and Worcestershire’s Stephen Peters, hampered Durham’s bid to leave the foot of the table, as play was restricted to just 44 overs at Stockton. Peters made a patient 62 before he fell lbw to Stephen Harmison, who conceded just two runs an over in his final chance to impress before the England team is announced on Saturday. Danny Law was the only other bowler to take a wicket – the prize scalp of Graeme Hick for 30 – as Anurag Singh had earlier run himself out for 16.Gloucestershire v Hampshire, Bristol
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Simon Katich fell four runs short of a well-deserved century, as Hampshire subjected Gloucestershire to a day of hard toil in the field – their stiffest competition yet in a runaway start to the season. John Crawley, Will Kendall and Nic Pothas all scored between 63 and 69 as Hampshire closed on 351 for 6. Gloucestershire’s wickets were shared around, with Jon Lewis and Ian Butler grabbing two apiece.Northamptonshire v Yorkshire, Northampton
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Michael Vaughan brought himself up to speed ahead of next week’s first Test with a timely 103, his first century of the season, but Northamptonshire’s spin pairing of Jason Brown and Monty Panesar took six wickets between them to keep Yorkshire within reach. Vaughan dominated a second-wicket stand of 142 with his captain Anthony McGrath (51), but Northants struck back with quick wickets in the middle order. An unbeaten half-century from Richard Dawson prevented a total collapse, however, as Yorkshire closed on 360 for 9.Somerset v Glamorgan, Taunton
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Nixon McLean found inspiration in West Indies’ exploits in Antigua, taking 5 for 43 as Glamorgan were bundled out for 200. Even Matthew Maynard couldn’t save them this time, although his 55-run partnership with Adrian Dale came after McLean had reduced Glamorgan to 15 for 3. Robert Croft propped up the tail with 46, but Somerset were in utter command by the close, after Marcus Trescothick’s blistering 70 from 74 balls. Peter Bowler had made a more sedate 51 not out, in a total of 161 for 1.Other matchWarwickshire v Cardiff UCCE, Abergavenny
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Warwickshire’s captain Michael Powell slapped the Cardiff students for a rapid 140, but Ian Bell missed the chance to remind the England selectors of his potential, as he was stumped for 21. Cardiff replied strongly to Warwickshire’s 367 for 4 dec, closing on 106 for 1.

All Today’s Yesterdays – July 17 down the yearsJuly 16| July 181941
One of England’s most accomplished wicketkeepers is born. It was Bob Taylor’s misfortune that he was around at the same time as Alan Knott, and in an era when wicketkeepers were expected to deliver with the bat for the first time. Taylor couldn’t – he made only three fifties in 57 Tests – but he could certainly keep. His glovework was near perfect at times, and nobody in history can match his 1649 dismissals (1473 caught, 176 stumped), most of them in a 28-year career with Derbyshire. Ten of those catches came at Bombay in the Golden Jubilee Test of 1979-80, when Taylor stole a bit of the limelight from Ian Botham. Taylor’s last Test was in Pakistan in 1983-84, but two years later, against New Zealand at Lord’s in 1986, he took over the gloves from the injured Bruce French. He was only at the match as a media relations officer for Cornhill Insurance, the sponsors.1981
The second day of England’s Headingley escapology act, and an Australian total that was “worth 1000”. That’s what the Australian captain Kim Hughes thought about his side’s score of 401 for 9 declared. Hughes himself ground out 89, although his cap was sent flying at one point by a nasty bouncer that hinted at the demons that lurked both in the pitch and Bob Willis’s head. If one thing seemed certain, it was that England couldn’t win. The one bright spot on an increasingly ominous horizon was the return to form of Ian Botham. Freed of the captaincy shackles, and spurred on by Mike Brearley christening him the “sidestep queen”, Botham took 6 for 95 with a zealous and muscular bowling display – his first five-for since the last match before he took over the captaincy. By the end of the match, his bowling would hardly be recalled at all.1944
The New Zealand batsman Mark Burgess, who was born today, made five hundreds in his 50 Tests, and three of them came in consecutive Tests. It looks like the ultimate purple patch – except those three Tests were spread over two years. Burgess was only on a winning side five times, but one of those came when he was captain for the first time – the Wellington demolition of 1977-78, when New Zealand beat England for the first time in 42 attempts and 48 years.1960
Birth of the man with the highest batting average in one-day internationals.Kim Barnett did only play one game, when he carved 84 against Sri Lanka at The Oval in 1988, but it’s enough to put him top of the tree. A few weeks before that he hit 66 on his Test debut, against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, and then thumped a merry 80 in England’s next Test, against Australia at Headingley a year later. But Barnett’s on-the-walk technique was soon found out, and after being dropped he went on the rebel tour to South Africa in 1989-90. That was his international career done, but he ploughed on as county cricket’s elder statesman for another 13 years, mostly with Derbyshire but later with Gloucestershire, until his retirement in 2002.1893
Against Australia at Lord’s, England’s Arthur Shrewsbury became the first man to make 1000 runs in Tests when he hammered 106 in the first innings.1919
With a bowling average in excess of 50, New Zealand legspinner AlexMoir, who was born today, didn’t exactly have a Boy’s Own Test career.That was after something of a dream start, when he took 6 for 155 against England at Christchurch in 1950-51. But overall, New Zealand lost 12 and won none of Moir’s 17 Tests.1933
In Rhodesia, a South African batsman is born. Tony Pithey’s 17-Testcareer had one distinct highlight: a patient 154 against England at Cape Town in 1964-65. It was his only Test hundred. His brother David also played eight Tests for South Africa.

Imran Khan has strongly criticised the way in which Pakistan’s domestic cricket is structured. Speaking to the Pakistan newspaper, Dawn, he said that departmental cricket, played between corporates, was ineffective in spotting and nurturing talent.”Departmental cricket is a joke,” he said. “I have never seen this type of cricket anywhere in the world.” The PCB did not have the will to change the system, he said. “I have contacted the PCB authorities on retaining the departmental teams, [and] they assured me that it will be removed from next year. Who can say [whether] they will stay in the PCB till next year? This is Pakistan where things change overnight.”Imran was also acerbic about the fact that trial camps had to be held for selection purposes. “I [don’t know of] a single example of trials held for the selection of a team anywhere in the world,” he said. He added that had he stayed in Pakistan instead of honing his talents in England, he too could have been lost on the wayside.He said that regional cricket was essential to generate interest in domestic cricket. No one felt any loyalty for the departmental teams, he said, while regional teams would whip up passions among people from resepctive regions, and would inspire young cricketers.He also commented on the frequency with which the PCB changed the names of their first-class tournaments, and said that often, one did not even know which trophy was being played for. He said that Pakistan was full of talent, much as West Indies had once been, but it was getting lost because of lack of planning.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Indian board, has confirmed that Ahmedabad will be the venue for India’s first Test against New Zealand, which starts on October 8. “The Green Park stadium in Kanpur is not fit to stage the Test, so we have shifted the match to Ahmedabad.”As had earlier been anticipated, the game has been shifted from Green Park in Kanpur due to poor ground conditions there. Kanpur has experienced heavy monsoon rains which have damaged the newly laid pitch and the seating area in the stadium. Jyoti Bajpai, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UCPA), expressed his disappointment, but agreed that there was no other solution.”Even the pitches committee had refused to take any responsibility regarding the Green Park wicket. Besides, it is not feasible to rectify the problems in the available time of two months,” he clarified. “Though it was a big blow to Kanpur but sometimes such types of blows are a must for good things to happen. Despite the shifting of the Test, our number in the rotation list will remain on top.”The second Test of the two-match series will be played at Mohali from October 16 to 20.

Nasser Hussain is doubtful for the final Test at The Oval after breaking his toe while batting against South Africa at Headingley on Saturday.Hussain sustained the injury when he was struck on his left big toe by an inswinging Yorker from Andrew Hall during England’s first innings. He batted on Sunday with the help of pain-killing injections.There were suggestions that Hussain suffered the break when he kicked a dressing-room door in frustration following his first-innings dismissal by Jacques Rudolph. “There are various conspiracy theories doing the rounds but it’s straightforward – I got hit by Hall," Hussain told Channel 4. "If I had kicked a door it would have been right-footed.”