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A minor fire broke out in the Sector 16 Stadium where India will take on Australia in the fourth one-dayer of the seven-match series on Monday.The Chandigarh Fire Department sources said that the fire, which broke out in the newly-constructed media centre, had been brought under control. No one was injured in the incident, sources said, adding that the fire was due to a short circuit.International cricket returns to this venue after 14 years. The last match played in this stadium was in January 1993, when India took on England in a one-dayer. The stadium has staged four ODIs and one Test in 1990 between India and Sri Lanka.The construction of the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, in 1993-94, forced the Sector 16 stadium to take a back seat. The stadium has been renovated in the last few months to include a new media centre, upgraded dressing rooms and pavilion enclosure, an electronic scoreboard, and better seating arrangements.

Brian Lara has been appointed the captain of West Indies captaincy for a third time. The formal announcement was made at midday in Trinidad.”It’s a great honour,” Lara told reporters. “It’s the third time I’m taking the job and I feel I have the necessary support. [Shivnarine] Chanderpaul did a wonderful job under the circumstances. He’ll reap the benefits later in life. He called me and he said he’d support me and asked that I give it some consideration.”The fact that a lot of former players called me was humbling. This was followed up by phone calls from present team-mates who thought I should assume the mantle of leadership at this juncture. I called past and present players for an objective view on the matter. They unequivocally thought the same as the others who were trying to influence me.”Ken Gordon, the board chairman, was quick to stress that Lara was not a stopgap choice. “His appointment is not an interim one,” he said. “His appointment as captain stands and it is not for any fixed period of time.”It is logical to go back to Lara. Of all the players available, they each had varying strengths but there were also varying weaknesses. He brings a lot to the table at this time which will make a material difference. Whatever the risks, the best is to go with Lara, whose experience and knowledge is unquestioned.”Lara has already led West Indies 40 times, winning 10 and losing 23. He was first captain between 1996-97 and 1999-2000, resigning after a dismal series in New Zealand. He was appointed for a second time in 2002-03, eventually being replaced by Chanderpaul in March 2005 when he stood down because of an ongoing contractual dispute with the board.

The Indian board has marked out 60 to 70 million rupees ($1.47-1.71 million) for women’s cricket this season, almost twice of what had been allotted last year.”The increase in the money available means women will get to play more days of cricket, approximately thrice the amount they played last year,” Shubhangi Kulkarni, the convenor of the BCCI’s women’s committee, told Cricinfo.While last season state cricket was restricted to limited-overs matches, this year women’s state teams will play one-day as well as two-day fixtures. Apart from that, Under-19 inter-state tournaments as well as zonal tournaments will be organised for women. Like with men’s cricket, prize money for women’s tournaments will also see an increase.The women’s committee further plans to hold Level I courses in cricket education for women keen on becoming coaches, scorers or umpires.Though an increase in prize money for international tournaments is planned, it isn’t exactly clear yet how much will be handed out.

Eight overs into the day’s play, this match effectively ended as a contest when the first innings lead was decided; as the match meandered to a draw on a lifeless pitch, Delhi, who took two points, spent the rest of the day getting batting practice. It put into sharp focus what Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, said in Hyderabad today, that India needed more sporting domestic pitches.Pawar’s reference point was the Durban debacle, and how better pitches at home would help Indian batsmen when they played abroad, but he might also have addressed the other, possibly larger, concern: Domestic cricket needs better pitches for better contests, to simply improve as a spectacle.In any case, this match was dead when Rajat Bhatia picked off a single off D Tamil Kumaran to take the Delhi score past Tamil Nadu’s 347. With the first-innings lead secured, there was little to look forward to for either side, and Bhatia and Vijay Dahiya made the most of a cool, wintryday to post big hundreds.There was just the slightest chance that Tamil Nadu could put in aninspired spell on the final morning and hold Delhi back. Themorning session at the Kotla has always been tricky but Delhi had got theirplans dead right on the third day itself when Dahiya came out to bat andhit a succession of boundaries. “I had not planned to goafter the bowling. But I knew that it could be hard to bat in the morningso I played aggressively,” said Dahiya. “I wanted to ensure that we had aslittle to do as possible on the final morning.”Dahiya, who had reached 51 at the end of the third day, and is making acomeback to the Delhi team after sitting out the whole of the last season,continued to bat with a fluency and effectiveness no other batsmanhad shown in the game. “It just happens that sometimes one batsman scoreswhile others miss out. I didn’t do anything different,” said Dahiya, whose152 included 29 boundaries.Bhatia, who made a big hundred against Tamil Nadu last season aswell, looked well set to get to a double-century when he holed out to RSathish at long off against the now occasional left-arm spin of S Vidyut.He’d probably have got there had he decided to bed down instead oftake chances but, with 166 runs under his belt and close to 10 hours at the crease, he decided to have a go and failed to clear long off.Dahiya’s dismissal, hitting S Badrinath to midwicket, prompted Delhito declare at 491 for 7 and give their spinners anextended bowl. Ishant Sharma, the young medium-pacer, sent down just oneover in the second innings, while Ashish Nehra, who had toiled for 40overs in the first innings, did not even take the field. With Tamil Naduon 66 for 2 the match was called off at the start of the mandatory overs.”We have been training hard for the last 40 days, especially on thephysical fitness aspect, and this is the result,” said ChetanChauhan, the Delhi coach. He added that there was hope that the Delhi andDistrict Cricket Association would prepare better pitches for the gamesahead where “the balance between bat and ball is more even.”Woorkeri Raman, Tamil Nadu’s coach, told Cricinfo that he did havepositives to take from this match. “One has to realise that there’s a fairbit of inexperience in the bowling attack. Yomahesh bowled well and thisis only his third Ranji Trophy match, he’s just learning the ropes,”he said. “Considering that this was an away game and we played threedebutants, in a way it was good that we got the warning signs early on.This gives you a chance to take something out of the game and then try andrectify what you have to and get things in order for the rest of theseason.”Raman also listed the performance of M Vijay, the debutant openingbatsman, as a positive. “It’s a completely different thing for a youngsterto come into first-class cricket,” he said. “What was especially pleasingwas the fact that he showed the ability to graft, unlike the flamboyancewhich you normally associate with Tamil Nadu batsmen.”Raman is not known for mincing words, though, and you can be surehe would have had a few blunt things to say to his players in the privacyof the dressing-room. But made no excuses for his team’sperformance. “We didn’t take the chances that came our way. We did nottake off when we had a launching pad while batting. Badri and Vijay did agood job in stabilising the innings, but from there on we did notcapitalise,” he said. “On this wicket, which was a nightmare for bowlers,450-500 was definitely possible. We didn’t get that, and even then, whenwe bowled, having got the early breakthroughs and picking up a wicket withthe second new ball, we did not capitalise.”

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.

It is expected that the New Zealand government will ask Australia and Great Britain to support a call for the ICC to ban Zimbabwe from international cricket because of the Robert Mugabe regime’s rapidly deteriorating human-rights record.On Monday, the New Zealand cabinet meets, and one of the items high on the agenda will be whether to refuse to grant visas to the Zimbabwe team for their scheduled visit in December. Although New Zealand are due to travel to Zimbabwe in August, the government has ruled out a ban as it is not able to prevent its citizens from travelling abroad. But an entry ban would have the desired effect as well as enabling New Zealand Cricket to avoid any penalty from the ICC.Phil Goff, the foreign minister, who has been outspoken on the issue, said that he will ask Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, and Alexander Downer, his Australian counterpart, to back his call to have Zimbabwe banned altogether. He is also believed to be discussing the situation with Martin Snedden, the New Zealand board’s chief executive, who is in London for the annual ICC get together.”Most of us don’t want to see sport being used as a political weapon,” Goff told the Sunday Star-Times. “But in some cases you just can’t ignore sporting teams going to countries where this sort of thing is happening and pretend nothing is wrong. It is time the ICC showed some leadership on this issue.”We need to make an approach to the ICC, saying surely there must be circumstances in which your affiliate members can be excused from their contractual obligations. No human being can ignore the atrocities that are going on in Zimbabwe today.”What began as a little local difficulty is again threatening to escalate into something more serious, and the subject of Zimbabwe is once again becoming a hot potato for the game’s administrators.The ICC is unlikely to shift from its well-worn policy that it can only become involved in the security of teams and officials and not the internal politicals of any country. But if the crisis in Zimbabwe becomes an international affair – and Africa is a hot topic at the moment – then that could mean the heat on cricket’s administrators is racked up more than ever.Adam Parore, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper, gave a possible taste of things to come when he told reporters that the tour was “a disaster waiting to happen,” adding that the ICC was to blame for implementing a future tour programme “knowing damn well that half the countries involved in it are unsafe, involved in terrorism, harbouring terrorism, or have civil wars going on.”

The inaugural Asian Super Sixes Challenge 2006, which was scheduled to be held in Karachi on the weekend of September 15-16, has been postponed due to what the organizers only described as “unavoidable circumstances”.”We have informed the ICC about this development and have requested for advising us on new available dates,” a spokesman explained.Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and hosts Pakistan were due to participate in the tournament.

Chennai, and not Ahmedabad, should have been allotted a Test match against England, Cricinfo has learned. The last few weeks have been filled with vociferous complaints from the England and Wales Cricket Board, and the English media, over the itinerary for England’s forthcoming tour of India. While, on the surface, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is strictly adhering to its rotation policy, deeper investigation reveals that something questionable has indeed occurred.The Tour Programmes and Fixtures Committee of the BCCI, which chalks out itineraries for all home matches, met in Mumbai on September 6 to sort out the schedule for the forthcoming season. At the time, however, the committee only decided on the venues for the one-day internationals that were coming up against Sri Lanka and South Africa. Why this was done, no-one is able to answer satisfactorily. And this has made a big difference to how the rotation policy has been applied.According to the rules followed by the board, the Test and ODI rotations run parallel. This means that a situation could arise where it could be a venue’s turn to host both a Test and an ODI in a series. When this happens, it has been the practice that the venue must stage the Test, and wait its turn for the next series for the ODI.Therefore, if the Programmes and Fixtures Committee had worked out for the venues for the forthcoming ODIs and Tests, then Ahmedabad would have been forced to stage a Sri Lanka Test match (Sri Lanka are now playing at Chennai, Delhi and Kanpur). This would have meant that when England’s turn came around, Chennai would have been an automatic allotment for a Test match.There has also been some discrepancy in the allotment of practice matches to the North-Eastern centres of Jamshedpur and Agartala. The fixtures committee met in Delhi to allot the venues for the England Tests and ODIs but did not rule on the warm-up matches. In the past, on most occasions when the Test and ODI fixtures are announced the committee also announces the venues for the side games. In this case, however, it appears that that the chairman of the Tour Programmes and Fixtures Committee, in consultation with the BCCI president, has later allotted the venues to Jamshedpur, Agartala, and Dharamsala for a practice match before the ODIs, which only came to light when representatives of the ECB visited Kolkata for discussions on the itinerary.Staging a three-day game against a touring team is the first step in a venue’s movement towards becoming an international venue. If they stage this warm-up match against England, Agartala will be in a strong position to stake a claim to holding an ODI in a couple of years’ time, a board source told Cricinfo. Dharamsala has already staged a tour match, against Pakistan, and this will only strengthen their case. The most recent instance of this happening is Vijayawada, who hosted a warm-up match when the Zimbabweans toured in early 2002. Just nine months later they were handed their first, and so far only, ODI when West Indies toured.It has also been reported, in that there was some uncertainty over Kanpur hosting the Sri Lanka Test match in December this year owing to a money dispute with the Kanpur District Association, who own the ground. However, as a permanent Test venue, Kanpur has already refused to host Tests in the past, on grounds that the stadium was not ready for play. When New Zealand toured India in 2003 Kanpur was to host a Test, but refused to do so.The BCCI pressurised Kanpur to stage the game, but the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association refused to relent, fearing that if they did stage the game in substandard conditions (poor pitch, outfield, facilities) then they were in danger of being blacklisted as a venue by the ICC. But a long time has passed since 2003 and the BCCI refused to relent this time round, rightly contending that the UPCA had enough time to get its act together. Soon after it was decided, Cricinfo has learned, that if Kanpur was to attempt to forego a Test again when its turn came, stern action would be taken that could have resulted in it being stripped of Test status, which would be accompanied by a loss of a place in the working committee. Therefore it was a fait accompli that Kanpur hosted a Test against Sri Lanka.

The South Africa A squad were left increasingly frustrated in Kandy where they were supposed to play the second four-day match against Sri Lanka A starting on Tuesday. The match has now been moved to Dambulla because of the incessant rain in Kandy. It will commence on Wednesday and will be played as a three-day contest.”We are really out of sorts because of the inclement weather, here,” said Vincent Barnes, who is coaching the South Africa A side. “It’s been raining since our arrival and reports say the ground has been waterlogged for over a week. The lack of facilities is also compounding our frustrations.”The South Africans will travel to Dambulla for practice on Tuesday and return to Kandy overnight before returning to Dambulla on the morning of the match. The bus trip is estimated to be between two and three hours.”We have been told that there was no accommodation in Dambulla and wouldnot be available before Wednesday, so we need to bite the bullet,” said Barnes, whose side lost the first match after Sajeewa Weerakoon turned in a stellar display to take 13 wickets.

I think it was Nat “King” Cole, the Blues & Soul singer, who had a major hit song called “Again” some time in the past. That song must have been specially dedicated to the West Indies cricket team, for, again, they were destroyed by some good fast bowling. While good, the bowling was not so good that the West Indies cricket team should only have made 125 on such a perfect batting pitch. The West Indies batting on Day 3 was shameful, at best. They can hide behind no excuses this time. 54; 61; now 125. What next, one wonders!The West Indies started at 11:00am BST at 13-0. By 11:35am BST, they had progressed to 32-0. Then hell, or more aptly, Andy Caddick, Darren Gough, Dominic Cork and especially Craig White broke loose. Perhaps that is the concept of “hell” that the West Indies cricketers now have. In exactly three hours, at 2:35pm BST, the West Indies had been dismissed; the 1st innings in complete disarray, all out for another “lottery number”.Again, Sherwin Campbell played away from his body to Dominic Cork. Again he got an inside edge, since the batsman’s feet had not moved. Again that inside edge cannoned on to the off stump. One wonders if Campbell will learn at all, or if the Coaches are getting through to him, or if the Coaches are getting through to anyone at all.From 32-0, the West Indies were destroyed by some of the most determined and careful fast bowling seen for some time, except the aggression was not the “bouncer and body-line” type, but the type which suggested that a plan had been devised by England for the plethora of left handers that the West Indies presented as players masquerading as batsmen. The English fast bowler, in contrast to the ‘body-line” aggression at Lord’s during Test No. 2, bowled at a much fuller length, but the batsmen wilted just the same; again!Again, playing as mindlessly as he had done at Leeds, Adrian Griffith drove away from his body to a Craig White delivery, immediately after Campbell’s dismissal, only to see the resultant flying edge taken high but well by Graeme Hick at 2nd slip. Remembering that he lost his off stump in a similar manner at Leeds, one wonders if this team has any hope. They just keep doing the same things over and over again.Then, the real nail in the West Indies coffin was effected. Brian Lara, whom the press everywhere had put great pressure on by suggesting that he will be the man to change things for the West Indies in this Test, played across the first delivery he received, from Craig White, bowling around the wicket, instead of playing fully out, and heard rather than saw his leg stump disturbed behind his back. The shout of celebration from White, his team-mates and the English supporters could have been heard all the way to Maraval, where Lara lives in Trinidad & Tobago.I am convinced that the English cricket team had done their homework on the left handers in the West Indies cricket team. Immediately that Craig White came on to bowl, he started from around the wicket to Adrian Griffith, the batsman just digging out a yorker, because he was at the crease for a spell; White’s first delivery. Lara was not so lucky, He saw nothing as the ball slanted into and away from him to leg, to hit the leg stump.That did not happen by accident, as White never bowled over the wicket for the entire day while bowling to a left hander. That was definitely a plan!Wavell Hinds soon took a delivery on his pad which was headed to middle stump, and suddenly, the West Indies were 34-4. England’s bowlers were being tremendously accurate, and Craig White and Dominic Cork, the 2nd tier of England’s attack, were the destroyers this time. What an attack this is turning out to be.For once Ramnaresh Sarwan let ambition become greater that his team’s position, for, as he drove with his head in the air, he lost his balance, the resulting edge careening to Marcus Trescothick at gully for the fieldsman to take a great sharp catch. At 39-5, the West Indies looked as if they were not even going to be able to save the follow-on; 82 required.It was suggested by many that Jimmy Adams looked very tired when he approached the crease to bat. Certainly his stroke, to give catching practice to Hick at slip from Cork’s bowling, suggested that Adams was indeed tired, probably from the tour, probably from his team’s efforts. 56-6 was not a great position to be in when England had already made 281.Had it not been for a real face saving partnership of 44 between a much improved and gutsy Nixon McLean; both his batting and bowling looked tremendously useful; and the resurging Ridley Jacobs, the West Indies would have been embarrassed even further. They had come to the crease after Mahendra Nagamootoo, picked to bowl leg breaks, but recognized as a fair batter, showed his worth for 18, helping Jacobs to carry the score from 51-6 to 74-7. What a completes shambles this was!!Once Mc Lean was gone, bowled from the inside edge from White, again from around the wicket, it was all over, not including the shouting. That, of course, continued apace, and rightly so. The West Indies were again decimated by fast purposeful fast bowling, operating with a plan. That final score of 125 attested to that.A final thought on England’s 3rd Day efforts. There was no real help from the pitch for the bowlers. It was true and firm and played very well. The bowlers simply put the ball down in the right places and allowed the West Indies to, again, make themselves look like fools batting. How a team could manage to make itself look like a kindergarten school’s cricket team as well as the West Indies cricket team does is anyone’s guess. England’s bowlers were magnificent, and Craig White, who got his best Test figures to date, 11-1-32-5, deserves to be the head of the pack. He, and the rest of the English contingent, planned their efforts well and executed well.Even with the eventual wickets of Marcus Trescothick and the luckless Nasser Hussein, the West Indies are slowly being, if indeed it has not yet happened, played out of the game. With a lead of already 212 with eight wickets in hand, and only six sessions left in the game, it is still possible for the West Indies to pull of a magnificent, magical win, but not very likely.England hold all of the aces now. All they have to do is bat at least two of those sessions and score perhaps another 100 runs. Making over 300 runs is possible, but who would bet on the West Indies doing a Barbados again, when Lara and his boys managed a miracle? Again?