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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.

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.

Newcastle United are on course to avoid relegation to the Championship as Eddie Howe has galvanised the club in recent months.

The Magpies are nine points clear of the bottom three as it stands and have only lost two of their last 11 matches in the Premier League.

Howe has led them out of the relegation zone and may look to restructure his squad with incomings and outgoings in the summer. Who could be facing the axe?

Sell him

One player who the 44-year-old must brutally axe from the club at the end of the season is midfielder Jeff Hendrick, who is currently on loan at QPR in the Championship.

The 30-year-old’s current contract with the Magpies does not expire until 2024, having signed for the Tynesiders two years ago. This means that the club must cut ties with him in the summer, or else he will continue to pick up a wage for another two years without contributing much on the field.

Toon reporter Scott Wilson previously dubbed him a “liability”, while club legend Steve Howey once ripped into the midfielder for a sending off which he deemed “embarrassingly bad”.

That quote from Howey can also be used to describe how Hendrick has played for the club in the Premier League since 2020. He has not been good enough for a top-flight team for a number of years, and it is now time to finally axe him on a permanent basis.

Since the start of the 2018/19 campaign, his SofaScore rating of 6.63 across just three outings this term is the best he has managed. He registered scores of 6.51, 6.55 and 6.58 respectively across the three seasons leading up to the current one, which shows that he has consistently underperformed and failed to impress for both Burnley and Newcastle. Indeed, he ranked a pitiful 25th out of 26 in the Toon squad for SofaScore ratings last season.

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Therefore, the £50k-per-week dud must not be at St James’ Park by the end of the summer transfer window. Howe must push the club to sell him before the end of August or, at the very least, loan him out for the entire 2022/23 campaign with an option for the other club to sign him at the end of that agreement.

His statistics in the top flight are horrific and do not suggest that he will be a player of use to the head coach heading into next season. At the age of 30, Hendrick is entering the twilight of his career, and the Magpies may not have a better chance to cash in on him before he regresses further and his value dwindles with age.

AND in other news, Left for £0, now the next Sancho: NUFC will have nightmares over 18 y/o “huge talent”…

	Niranjan Shah: ‘We have an understanding with the other countries’ boards that they can’t allow players who are associated with the ICL to be allowed to play at any level’ © Getty Images

The Indian board (BCCI) has told Cricinfo that it will be lodging a complaint with the ECB following confirmation that the PCB has issued No Objection Certificates to Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, allowing them to play county cricket in 2008.The two players are involved with the unauthorised Indian Cricket League and Niranjan Shah, the BCCI’s secretary, told Cricinfo that “we have an understanding with the other countries’ boards that they can’t allow players who are associated with the ICL to be allowed to play at any level, regardless of the reason the player has a contract with his board or not.”If the news is true that the two players have been given NOCs by the PCB then we will take up the issue with the ECB since the two counties – Sussex and Yorkshire – come under the jurisdiction of the England board.”The ECB, however, is legally powerless to take any action in the light of the NOCs being granted and is likely to pass the matter back to the Indian board to sort out directly with its Pakistan counterparts.The situation is further muddied by confusion within the PCB about the issuing of an NOC to Naved-ul-Hasan. On Thursday, Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, told Reuters that “the factual position is that some counties had asked the PCB to issue NOC’s for these players. But we’ve now informed them very clearly that since these players are not contracted to us nor eligible to play in Pakistan we don’t come anywhere into this issue at all.”But less than a day later, Naghmi gave Cricinfo an altogether different picture. “Our board’s policy on the ICL remains as it has always been and these players cannot play in Pakistan,” he said. “But the board also felt that there is no legal or moral reason in stopping someone from playing cricket in another country. That is subject to their laws. So, on this basis, we have sent an NOC, which maybe wasn’t as well-worded as planned, but the intention was made clear.”Stewart Regan, the Yorkshire chief executive, told Cricinfo that the NOC had in fact been received last week and was dated March 17. “We have a signed letter that is very clear in confirming they [the PCB] have no objection,” he said. This was then sent to the ECB, along with the player’s registration form, and was accepted by the board.Today’s news follows the revelations last week that the ECB had refused registrations for five players because of their participation in the ICL. But with Pakistan approving Mushtaq and Naved-ul-Hasan, and in so doing leaving the England board with no room for manoeuvre, there are certain to be some terse exchanges between the PCB and the BCCI in the coming days.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Sourav Ganguly reached three figures in Tests for the first time since September 2005 © Getty Images

After hours of waiting, in which more than 70 overs and almost five hours of play was lost, the game finally got under way at half past four in the afternoon on the second day. Sourav Ganguly completed his century and was dismissed immediately, on an even 100, and Sachin Tendulkar brought up his hundred soon after. The aim was to play 23 overs, but that was never likely given the speed at which light deteriorates late in the day in the East, and in the end 20 overs were sent down, in which India added 89 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. India reached 384, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni still at the crease.When play began, India were 295 for 3, and had a full day’s play been possible that would have been a good platform from which to build. But, given all the time lost, and how flat this pitch is – its nature had not changed in the least despite all the moisture that had been around – it’s becoming increasingly difficult to see either team forcing a win in this Test match.If anything, the loss of time has made one scenario more likely, and that is India batting long in their first innings and then attempting to bowl out Bangladesh twice. However, for that to happen, India had to score quickly and give their bowlers enough time to get to work. The fact that Tendulkar and Ganguly, both left out of the one-day team for this tour, were nearing centuries, meant that the pace was unlikely to be anything to write home about.Still, Ganguly looked to play his shots, picking up three boundaries on the road from 82 to 100. Two of those were pull shots, struck in front of square once each off Shahadat Hossain and Mashrafe Mortaza. There was also a sweetly timed straight drive off Mohammad Rafique, which was scarecely more than a checked shot, but the timing was impeccable and the placement perfectly inbetween bowler and mid-on.The century came in slightly ungainly fashion, when Ganguly fended away a short ball from Shahadat with an awkward pull shot. There was relief on Ganguly’s face as he held his arms aloft, acknowledging the scattered cheers, having reached three figures in Tests for the first time since September 2005, against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo. There he made 101 off 262 balls, reaching his century with a boundary, and was dismissed off the very next ball. In a manner of speaking history repeated itself at the Divisional Stadium in Chittagong. Two balls after reaching his hundred Ganguly was dismissed, playing the pull, as he top-edged the ball straight up in the air for mid-off to catch.Meanwhile, Tendulkar was inching towards his own milestone. As has been his method in recent times he cut out all risky shots, and instead concentrated on picking off the ones and twos – mostly ones – through the on-side, shuffling across his stumps and closing the face of the bat, working the ball to the on-side. But when the ball was loose – pitched a touch short, and width afforded, or too full – Tendulkar did not hold back, clattering Mashrafe Mortaza through point and then punching back past the bowler for consecutive boundaries to move from 85 to 93. Tendulkar got to his 36th hundred with a punch to mid-on.The arrival of Dhoni, at the fall of Ganguly’s wicket, did plenty to elevate the run-rate, and give India’s innings some much needed momentum. Dhoni began as he meant to go on, with an aggressively punched boundary. But even as Dhoni motored on India lost their third wicket to a batsman attempting to pull a ball from outside the off stump as Tendulkar failed to get hold of one from Shahadat and skied the ball to the off side. Tendulkar had made 101.Ramesh Powar replaced Tendulkar, and in the fading light Dhoni continued to force the pace, constantly looking to attack the mediumpacers. He picked up six boundaries in typically flamboyant fashion, but Powar failed in his duty to keep Dhoni company. Powar came down the pitch and had an ambitious heave at a straight one from Mohammad Rafique and found his stumps violently rearranged. Anil Kumble, who came in to bat at No. 8, was more sensible, and restrained, and ensured that he kept his wicket intact when stumps were drawn. This left Dhoni, batting on 36 from 35 balls, with another stab at the Bangladeshis on the third day. India need to look for quick runs and a declaration, if they are to make a serious attempt at winning this Test.

An artist’s impression of what the Kensington Oval should look after the refurbishment © Getty Images

The Kensington Oval will have a test run before the ground is handed over to the ICC in February.Chris deCaires, the chairman of World Cup Barbados Inc., made it clear there will be practice games on the playing area before the year-end.”Our schedule confirms that we will be ready and the ICC has given the green light that our schedule is satisfactory to being World Cup-ready for next year and that will include practice games on the ground,” he said.Gordon Greenidge, the former West Indies opening batsman, said he was concerned whether there would be any real assessment of the pitch before the World Cup. He did not think that the Oval would be completed in time for practice matches to be played there before Barbados hosts Super Eight matches next April.However, deCaires said that in addition to the test run for the pitch, there would be a rehearsal for the entire stadium.”It is very important to have practice games and that is on the agenda, as well as an event to test the entire stadium. We want to make sure the stadium works well.”deCaires said he was pleased with the progress of construction at the Oval and promised that when it was completed, the facility would be truly world-class.”We still have a lot of work to be done but I am happy with what we have achieved so far and the efforts from all sectors of the society.”I have never been involved with a project that has such an integration from so many levels of society. We will host the best World Cup ever and all of Barbados will be proud and pleased with the final product.”The players’ pavilion will be up there with the best in the world, as well as the Challenor and Kensington Stands and the media centre. We will have a world-class facility, no doubt about it.”

Ajay Jadeja: from Delhi to Maharashtra? © Getty Images

Ajay Jadeja and Sairaj Bahutule are high on Maharashtra’s shopping list as the side, after appointing Darren Holder as their coach, began to scout for stars from out of town. Both Jadeja and Bahutule captained their respective state sides – Delhi and Mumbai – in last season’s domestic competitions but the duo might just be part of Maharashtra’s plans to revive their flagging fortunes.The management committee of the Maharashtra Cricket Association has authorised a Rupees 1 million salary for Jadeja to play the next season for them as captain, a source told Cricinfo. Jadeja, who returned to first-class cricket last season after serving a three-year ban for involvement in matchfixing, had a good return last year with 452 runs in seven games, including two hundreds and two fifties.”It’s not possible to make an official comment at the moment because the selection committee has not met yet,” the same source revealed. “But the management committee has given the go-ahead to recruit three cricketers from outside the state to play as professional cricketers.” Maharashtra has managed to rope in sponsors for their Ranji team, and felt it best to spend the money on cricketers’ salaries.Maharashtra were promoted to the Elite Group last year, after they clinched the Plate Championship in 2003, but they struggled throughout the year and just managed to avoid relegation.When Bahutule, who is currently back in Mumbai briefly on a break from playing league cricket in England for the birth of his daughter, was contacted he refused to confirm or deny the move. “I would not like to make any comment on this,” he said. Bahutule has contributed tremendously to the Mumbai side with both bat and ball and been an integral part of a team that won two successive Ranji Trophy championships in 2003 and 2004.

North Zone 279 and 191 beat West Zone 172 and 277 (Mane 127*, Martin 50, Sarandeep 4-99) by 21 runs
ScorecardA heroic unbeaten 127 by Vinayak Mane wasn’t enough to take his side to victory, as North Zone, helped by Sarandeep Singh’s 4 for 99, squeaked to a 21-run win in a tense, low-scoring thriller and booked a place in the final.Resuming from their overnight total of 92 for 2, Mane and Jacob Martin took the total to 148, but the slide began immediately after Martin reached 50, when he was nailed by Sarandeep. West Zone then lost wickets at regular intervals to slump to 225 for 7. Mane and Rakesh Patel threatened a revival, adding 43 for the eighth wicket, before Patel was caught behind off Amit Bhandari for 25 (268 for 8). West needed a further 31 at that stage, but managed only nine more as Bhandari and Dinesh Mongia cleaned up the tail.Mane’s gallant effort took all of 405 minutes and 249 balls. It was the second time in the match that a batsman had carried his bat through an innings: in North Zone’s second innings, Gautam Gambhir had made an unbeaten 111 out of his team’s 191.

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.