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Mental strength is such an important characteristic, but a calf injury will get a player more sympathy than a sick mind. Steve Waugh’s most enviable trait was not run-scoring or baggy-green pride, it was the grey matter his cap protected. Unforgiving, unflinching, almost all-conquering, Waugh’s brain was the model for long-term success.Waugh grew to understand the power of the mind and set about dismantling those of the opposition with his mental disintegration. Michael Slater was a successful and senior member during the early years of Waugh’s captaincy, but while his team-mates were looking for flaws in their rivals, Slater was experiencing problems with a pattern that was last year diagnosed as bipolar disorder. His behaviour started taking noticeable turns in 2000 and over the next year his actions created much publicity but received little help. Team-mates turned from him, and professional assistance was too far away.Slater this week revealed he suffered from the manic depressive disease, which causes large mood swings, and was worried about how his announcement would be received. The threat of admitting weakness has lasted much longer than his playing days. Society says injury-induced retirees are glorified; those with sick minds are signed off as nutcases.”Are people going to think I’m a fruit loop,” he asked Enough Rope’s Andrew Denton as he shared his secret. Twenty percent of Australians experience some sort of mental illness, yet an opening batsman who thrilled and spilled in a Test career of 71 Tests, scoring 5312 runs at 42.83, was more cautious – scared even – than facing Ambrose and Walsh at their fastest.The sad case of Slater, who believes the disorder was a by-product of the spinal disease Ankylosing Spondylitis afflicting him since he was at the Cricket Academy, highlights a disturbing cricketing anomaly. The mind is a player’s greatest weapon but maintenance and repairs are generally left to the individual.Why don’t teams tour with psychologists? A usual support-staff contingent includes a coach, manager, physiotherapist, masseuse and sometimes an assistant coach, bio-mechanist, yoga instructor and chef. Bodies are temples, but minds are like mini-bar bills and are the user’s responsibility. For help it’s usually necessary to make an international phone call or have a chat with a senior figure behind the nets.The problem with the in-dressing-room solution, compared to the confidentiality of a professional, is the trusted player or coach has a team duty to pass on information about the sufferer’s mindset. Forget the personal damage, what could it do to the side? Waugh, who praised his former team-mate for talking publicly about the illness, made the selectors and Malcolm Speed, the then Cricket Australia chief executive, aware of Slater’s slide in 2001 and he was dumped, never to return, for the final Test of the Ashes tour.While losing the one-day series 5-0 to Australia, John Bracewell said his batsmen were offered the use of Gilbert Enoka, the team’s psychologist, and the reaction was the stereotypical “send them to couch” humour. At his next public outing Bracewell effectively told the doubters to grow up. Psychologists were part of professional sport.Slater will forever wonder whether things could have been different. It now seems absurd that Waugh’s golden calf injury sustained at Trent Bridge in 2001 was a national concern and the state of Slater’s seriously worsening state of mind was mockingly dismissed. Waugh recovered to play at The Oval and scored a gutsy 157 not out; Slater’s combined problems – panic attacks that rushed him to hospital, reactive arthritis that folded him into a wheelchair – forced him to retire at 34. Leaping, helmet-kissing celebrations like his Lord’s 152 were old, fanciful dreams.The first signs of Slater’s bipolar disorder came in 2000 with his television commentary debut in England, and grew to become as common as a couple a day. Panic attacks are worse than any hamstring strain or bone-spur operation. The health problems were compounded and contributed to by the separation from his wife Stephanie, the accusation that he was addicted to cocaine and the awful, false rumour that he was the father of Adam Gilchrist’s child.

During this time Slater gave regular signs of his trouble. Glass of wine in-hand, he jumped on stage to sing with Jimmy Barnes at the 2001 Allan Border Medal, then there was the Rahul Dravid outburst, the buying of his long-saved-for Ferrari and four tattoos when one would have done. “This might clear up for a few people why my behaviour appeared erratic,” he explained of his decision to go public.Why it wasn’t dealt with, and why he wasn’t properly helped as it was happening remains a mystery. The talk on that Ashes tour was Slater was running quickly off the rails, but he was left on his own. Slater said he felt isolated as his friends turned their backs.Now a commentator who talks like he batted – fresh, mostly relaxed and highly entertaining – Slater’s eye-sparkle remains but his body looks worn out for a 35-year-old. He hopes for a long career but worries the “fruit loop” reaction could hinder his prospects. If his bipolar revelation has that effect it would be a greater injustice than the lack of support he received as he careered out of international cricket.”I wish I’d been stronger,” Slater said. “I was too sensitive and wore my heart on my sleeve.” Perhaps he was just right: there were far more highs than lows. Perhaps the people around him should have worried more about their caring than the cracking up. Mental injuries must be treated more seriously than any grade-one muscle tear.

ScorecardAvishka Gunawardene survived a nasty blow to the face to anchor Sri Lanka A’s second innings, but by the close of the second day at Dambulla, South Africa A were enjoying the better of the match, needing another four quick wickets to limit themselves to an obtainable target in the fourth innings of the match.Having bowled Sri Lanka A out for 206 in their first innings, the South Africans resumed on 71 for 1 and quickly lost Hashim Amla for 21, the first of six deserved wickets for the left-arm spinner, Sajeewa Weerakoon. But Jacques Rudolph anchored the innings with a composed 83, and though the middle-order collapsed to leave them on a wobbly 148 for 6, Tyron Henderson was on hand with a blistering 32-ball 50, which included four sixes.With a useful 48-run lead in the bag, South Africa turned the screw in Sri Lanka’s second innings, with Monde Zondeki striking twice in his first spell before forcing Gunawardene to retire hurt on 34. Henderson and Johan Botha grabbed two middle-order wickets apiece, including Kaushal Lokuarachchi in the final over of the day, to leave South Africa in the driving seat by the close.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has said that Pakistan will concentrate on preserving wickets early in the innings as they bid to upset Australia in the first match of the VB Series finals at Melbourne on Friday. Having managed back-to-back victories over Australia and the West Indies in Perth, Pakistan go into the first final full of confidence, with Brian Lara declaring them a big threat to the home side.Pakistan piled up an imposing 307 in their final league game against the West Indies, with Inzamam making 74 and Yousuf Youhana contributing a classy 105, and the unheralded Rana Naved-ul-Hasan then grabbed 4 for 29 as the West Indies were edged out in a tense finale.According to Inzamam, the steady starts have been a major factor in the recent success. “If you look at the last couple of games, if you save wickets then in the last 20 or 30 overs you can score anything,” he was quoted as saying in . “The last game against the West Indies they had a couple of wickets in hand and they scored 340-odd runs so it is important that we apply that.”Pakistan won one and lost two of its round-robin matches against Australia, and Inzamam said, “I know it is tough opposition but if we really work hard then well, hopefully we will perform well in the finals.” He pronounced himself satisfied with his own form, and also pinpointed exceptional performances from the likes of Rana.”My form is good, that is why I am looking good,” he said. “The last two games he (Rana) has really done well — they (the bowlers) really feel hunger and I think he has set the example.”Away from the feel-good atmosphere in the Pakistan camp, Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan cricket Board supreme, expressed the fear that Pakistan were losing ground as a Test-playing nation. With the tour of India now less than a month away, Shaharyar said, “It is obvious that the gap between our Test and one-day performances is big and this is something we remain concerned about even if we have made the one-day finals in Australia.”According to him, the lack of nous in the Test arena was easily explained. “The main reason for this is we are nurturing too many of our young players on one-day cricket and they just have not developed the mental strength and aptitude to play test cricket,” he said. “So we are working on a plan to balance the number of Tests and one-dayers our team plays in the next few years.”And the first step we have taken is to ask the Wales and English Cricket Board to consider playing four Tests and three ODIs in Pakistan later this year instead of three Tests and five ODIs.”For the moment though, Test matches will be far from Inzamam’s mind, as he and Bob Woolmer, the coach, aim to script an improbable victory that would set the team up for a challenging tour of India, and also erase some of the painful memories of a 3-0 drubbing in the Tests.

The ICC has agreed to the Sri Lankan board’s request to hurry up their bowling-review process. After discussions at the ICC’s annual conference, representatives from the Sri Lankan board challenged the ICC on how they currently deal with illegal bowling actions.The result of the discussions was that the ICC will speed up the process of looking at illegal actions as far as they can, as long as it doesn’t hinder the Cricket Committee and the Chief Executives’ Committee, the groups which will specifically be researching these issues.The ICC has promised to look further into the problem of throwing during the Champions Trophy in England this September. After that, members of the Cricket Committee, including the former cricketers Tim May, Aravinda de Silva and Angus Fraser, will have another look at how the current process of reviewing bowling actions is dealt with.The Sri Lankan board’s request came in response to the ICC’s recent handling of Muttiah Muralitharan’s action. After Murali was put through a series of high-tech tests at the University of Western Australia earlier this year, it was confirmed that when he bowled the doosra his elbow did exceed the permitted five-degree tolerance level for spinners. However, Bruce Elliott, the biomechanics expert who led the testing, then called for further research into the setting of tolerance levels for bowlers.As a result, Murali escaped any punishment and was allowed to continue bowling, although he was advised not to deliver any doosras. He went on to break Courtney Walsh’s Test-wickets record during Sri Lanka’s tour of Zimbabwe. However, his decision not to tour Australia for personal reasons – not unconnected with Aussie disapproval of his bowling action, not least from their prime minister John Howard – has put his position in danger, with Shane Warne hot on his heels only seven wickets behind going into the second Test against Sri Lanka at Cairns.The ICC’s stand on throwing has been scrutinised, and its tolerance levels for throwing have been criticised by Elliott, who believes that the limits are set on illogical data. He said that “the five-degrees [rule] is based on illogical data because they’ve just tested fast bowlers and assumed that there is some relationship between fast bowlers and spin bowlers. Fifteen degrees is the right angle for fast bowlers and you probably should come down to 10 degrees for spin bowlers.”While Elliott’s suggestion would ensure that fewer bowlers are reported for throwing, a current player told that even under the current method of reporting a bowler, too few bowlers were called. The batsman went on to say that the degree of extension for the bowlers had to be on a lower scale and that special allowances should not be made for bowlers with deformities, as there were no such provisions for the batsmen.But of late, what has become even clearer is that most bowlers bend and straighten their arm to a certain degree, which goes against the traditional definition of a legal delivery. Resolving this issue is what the ICC’s goal is, come September.

Andre Nel, the South African fast bowler, credits his former provincial and national coach Ray Jennings for making him a stronger bowler. Nel had approached Jennings for advice after a slump in form, and believed he had returned a fitter and better bowler after a couple sessions with his mentor.”Ray and I didn’t even do a lot of bowling. We watched videos of my action and we talked a lot,” he told the South African website news24.com. “He’s the guy who knows my bowling the best and he saw small things I didn’t notice. Injuries have played a big part in my recent performances. I tried to bowl too quickly to make up for whatever was wrong.”I tried to bowl from a position too close to the wicket and that resulted in my balance being off-kilter” Nel, 29, continued. “I’ve started releasing the ball from a wider position and forced myself to stamp down harder, with the result that my speed has returned. I don’t think I was aggressive enough in my approach. I held back a lot and tried to bowl economically over the past few months. It’s important to remember to take wickets; it’s another way to limit runs, especially early in an innings.” It was under the tutelage of Jennings at Eastern Province that Nel was called up to the South African side in 2001.He was also confident of his role in the one-day side with India due to tour next month and the World Cup looming next year. “I’ve always had to exercise control to try to put teams under pressure after replacing Shaun [Pollock] and Makhaya [Ntini] in the attack,” Nel admitted. “However, I’m not that kind of player. I like to get into batsmen’s faces and that’s why I’ve now been told to try to bowl faster and take wickets. I think I’m now the fittest I’ve been in many years and I’m excited about my bowling this season. If I’m not selected, I’ll at least know I’ve done my best.”Nel returned figures of 2 for 20 in eight overs during South Africa’s first warm-up match against Saurashtra, and one for 17 against the MCA President’s XI, in Mumbai this week.

Less than 24 hours after wrapping up their historic series victory in the Caribbean, four of England’s key players have been awarded six-month summer contracts by the England & Wales Cricket Board.The new contracts, which take immediate effect, have been awarded to England’s pacemen Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard – who shared 47 wickets between them – as well as the veteran batsman, Graham Thorpe, who scored 274 runs in the series, including a matchwinning century in Barbados.”Each of these players has made an outstanding contribution to England’s successful tour of the Caribbean,” said David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors, “and the award of contracts is richly deserved. The team now faces a busy period of international cricket this summer and all four players will have an important part to play in our plans.”The contracts system, which was introduced at the beginning of the decade, has been a vital component in England’s steady improvement over the past four years. “The lads face a really heavy schedule,” Graveney told BBC Radio. “We won in the West Indies as we kept our bowlers fit and we need to keep doing that.”The game isn’t flushed with money but it’s a balancing act between cricketing needs and finances,” added Graveney. “Harmison and James Anderson were on summer contracts last season. These give control to look after bowlers and counties get compensated for services lost by these lads.”Harmison’s county, Durham, was delighted by the news. “Stephen is proving what a great bowler he is,” said Martyn Moxon, the head coach. “The contract is justification for all the effort he has been putting in. The downside, for Durham, is that we are unlikely to see much of him this year.””We are delighted that Stephen’s continued excellent form has led to him being granted a central contract,” added David Harker, Durham’s chief executive. “The contract is the result of months of hard work following his back injury in Bangladesh and no one deserves it more than Stephen.”The four join eight other players who were awarded 12-month contracts by the ECB last September: James Anderson, Mark Butcher, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick.

South Africa 251 for 3 (Smith 72) beat City Nazim XI 250 for 4 (Farhat 64) by eight wickets (12 men per team)
Scorecard
South Africa dusted off the cobwebs and applied themselves to some much-needed batting practice under the lights at the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore. After losing the toss and being asked to bowl first, South Africa saw off a strong City Nazim XI by eight wickets, in a match that was arranged as a 12-a-side affair to ensure maximum time in the middle ahead of Friday’s first ODI.Graeme Smith continued his happy habit of leading from the front. His 72 underpinned South Africa’s pursuit of a handy total of 250 for 4, and he was ably supported by all his batsmen. Jacques Kallis was the second-highest scorer with 55, while Herschelle Gibbs, Neil McKenzie and Mark Boucher each chipped in with timely 30s.The basis of City Nazim’s total came from an eyecatching innings by Imran Farhat, whose impressive 64 contained seven fours and three sixes, and only came to an end when he skied Andrew Hall to Herschelle Gibbs at point. Gibbs also accounted for the captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who was turned down for a quick single and run out by a smart pick-up-and-throw to Mark Boucher behind the stumps.About 2,000 police, outnumbering a handful of spectators, were deployed in and outside the ground as part of tough security measures in place for the South Africans.

The West Indies squad arrived in Zimbabwe this afternoon to begin their five-week tour which includes two Test matches and five one-day internationals.Brian Lara, the captain, gave a brief press conference on his arrival at Harare airport after touching down via London. He said that his team were as advertised and contained “quite a lot of youngsters”.Lara was briefly on the previous West Indies tour of Zimbabwe in the winter of 2001, but had to return home before the international matches due to an injury. On that tour, West Indies won the two-match Test series 1-0, with one match drawn. They also won the triangular ODI tournament which included India as the third team. And in 1989, at the age of 20, Lara captained a young West Indian team to tour Zimbabwe in their pre-Test days.Lara said he was conscious of the need for West Indies to improve their record away from home, and diplomatically stated that he expected a hard tour. He added that he did not yet feel in prime batting form, but was sure he could raise his game in time for the Test series.The first tour match begins on Thursday October 30, with a three-day match against a Zimbabwe A team to be captained by Dion Ebrahim. The venue has been changed from the CFX Academy to Takashinga Sports Club, a new ground in the Harare suburb of Highfield, from which such players as Tatenda Taibu come from.Grant Flower, who missed the recent tour of Australia due to a hand injury, will definitely miss the two Test matches, but he hopes to be fit for the one-day series. Meanwhile, Douglas Hondo, who was also unable to play in Australia due to a thumb injury, is on course to recover in time for the first Test, due to start on November 4.

ScorecardKevin Pietersen enhanced his claims for an England place, when he completes his qualification next summer, after picking up his second century of England A’s Duleep Trophy game against South Zone.Pietersen followed his first-innings 104 with a brutal 115 from 79 balls, as England declared their second innings on 297 for 8, a lead of exactly 500. By the close, South Zone had recovered from a dreadful start to reach 171 for 2, but England still remain favourites to complete their victory on tomorrow’s final day.England began the day in a healthy position, leading by 291 with seven wickets in hand, but they had added just one run to their total when Matt Prior was bowled by Sree Santh. But Pietersen found a staunch ally in Bilal Shafayat, whose 34 was his first innings of note since he was suspended for one match for dissent. The pair added 79 for the fifth wicket, before both men fell to South Zone’s spinners – Pietersen was bowled by Sridharam Sriram and Shafayat was stumped off Sunil Joshi.Graham Napier picked up where Pietersen had left off, cracking 64 not out to add to his first-innings 76, while England A’s captain James Tredwell also impressed with 36. Joshi struck twice to remove Tredwell and Sajid Mahmood in quick succession, but the declaration soon followed with South Zone needing to bat out the rest of the match – or score an improbable 501 for victory.That prospect looked extremely distant indeed when Mahmood and Simon Francis took the new ball. They each grabbed an opener apiece as South Zone slumped to 1 for 2, but Venugopal Rao and Sriram took the attack to England’s attack. By the close they had added 170 for the third wicket, to leave the victory just about within their grasp.

Sachin Tendulkar is expected to play for the national champions Mumbai against a Rest of India side on September 18 – his first outing since undergoing hand surgery after the World Cup.Tendulkar, 30, damaged the ring finger of his left hand while attempting a catch last November. It did not hinder him in the slightest during a magnificent World Cup campaign, in which he was named Man of the Tournament for his 673 runs in 11 games, but he opted out of a subsequent trip to Bangladesh and flew to Baltimore, USA for an operation.The fixture is India’s traditional domestic-season opener, and many Indian players are keen to use it as a warm-up for their international programme. India have had a lengthy lay-off since April, but return to action with two Tests against New Zealand in October, before taking on Australia in a triangular one-day tournament.Tendulkar is the highest scorer in the history of one-day cricket with 12,219 runs in 314 games. He has also made 8,811 runs in 105 Tests, including 31 centuries – a total exceeded only by Sunil Gavaskar.