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As the reality of Scotland’s entry into the English NCL comes ever closer, Scottish Cricket’s Chief Executive, Gwynne Jones, announced the first squad of players to go into winter training."As we get into 2003 the squad will be reduced in numbers, but as you can see from the size of this squad, we want to see what a range of players have to offer us"A number of Scotland’s younger players are wintering abroad: Fraser Watts, Gregor Maiden and Dom Rigby are all in Australia, whilst Moneeb Iqbal is in Pakistan and Kyle Coetzer in South Africa. In addition to Moneeb Iqbal, seven other of Scotland’s European Championship winning Under 19 Squad have broken through to senior training: Qasim Sheikh, Stuart Murray, Brendan McKerchar, Robert More, Majid Haq, Kyle Coetzer and Harmanjit Singh.Whilst a Scotland’s youth policy is starting to make inroads into the senior squad, the value of experience as a valuable commodity, has also been recognised with the inclusion of Bryn Lockie, Asim Butt and Bruce Patterson.Gregor Maiden returns to the Scottish squad after a brief sojourn to England and the physio’s bench. Although an injury stopped him playing for Lancashire last year, Gregor is now fully fit and free to play for Scotland.In addition, Cedric English now qualifies, through residency, to play for Scotland in his own right, unlike in 2002 where he could only play as an overseas professional.Jones concluded:"We believe this squad will form a great foundation for many years to come, and most imminently for our entry into the National League next year and the qualifying groups for the 2007 World Cup"Scottish Cricket Senior Winter Training Squad 2002/2003James Brinkley, Asim Butt, Kyle Coetzer, David Cox, Cedric English, Steven Gilmour, Majid Haq, Paul Hoffmann, Moneeb Iqbal, Jamie Kerr, Douglas Lockhart, Bryn Lockie, Gregor Maiden, Neil McCallum, Brendan McKerchar, Neil McRae, Robert More, Stuart Murray, Drew Parsons, Sanjay Patel, Bruce Patterson, Dom Rigby, Qasim Sheikh, Harmanjit Singh, Colin Smith, Simon Smith, Ian Stanger, Peter Steindl, Andy Tennant, Kevin Thomson, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts, Greig Williamson, Craig Wright

Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher and Ashwell Prince have walked out on Cape Cobras after a reported dispute which followed the franchise’s decision not to pick them for the Pro20 semi-finals last season. The three have nominated the Warriors as their franchise for the 2008-09 season.While the news will be a slight embarrassment to the Cobras, the actual impact on the playing side will not be great as the trio, as contracted national players, have not featured regularly for the team.Mohamed Ebrahim, chairman of Western Cape Cricket, said the franchise was sorry such high calibre players were leaving, particularly Kallis and Prince who have for long been associated with them.Chief executive Andre Odendaal said they would be sorely missed, adding pointedly that Boucher had never actually played for the Cobras and Jacques had turned out in only one of their last 78 matches.”We enjoyed the association with them and our fans and the door remains open from our side should they wish to be involved in any way in future,” he said. “We will also miss Ashwell’s on-field leadership and enthusiasm which has been an important factor in the Cobras’ recent run of five successive semis or more in limited overs competitions.”For their part, the Warriors were very pleased to have snapped up the trio. “We are delighted to have Jacques, Mark and Ashwell joining,” said the Warriors’ chief executive Dave Emslie. “All three of them bring with them a wealth of cricketing talent and experience.”Coach Russell Domingo added: “It’s wonderful that Boucher and Prince have returned to their roots and along with Robin Peterson, Johan Botha and Makhaya Ntini we now have five locally bred international cricketers all playing for the Warriors.”Prince said he was looking forward to the move. “I am very excited to be rejoining my boyhood team,” he said, “and am looking forward to taking the team back to the glory days.”

A spirited resistance from the Hampshire tail was not enough to keep Yorkshire from victory at the Rose Bowl and send the home county deeper into the relegation mire with just two games remaining.With an away trip to Hove next week ahead of the visit of the County Champions-elect Surrey to close the season, it has put Hampshire’s chances of beating the drop as very slim indeed.The disasters of the previous evening, where four wickets fell for four runs in the space of 30 balls in the last half-hour, were too much to recoup and things got even worse when Will Kendall fell to the very first ball of the day and was followed by the limping Nic Pothas, who with the aid of a runner, scored just two.Dimitri Mascarenhas and Shaun Udal carried some hope as they shared a 38-run stand for the ninth wicket to take Hampshire beyond the 100 lead. But when Richard Dawson dismissed Udal to capture a five-wicket haul with a doubtful lbw decision – Udal’s distain as he left the field showed he felt he got bat on ball – it was all but done for.Set 151 for victory, Yorkshire lost opener Chris Taylor to an inswinger from Mascarenhas but Vic Craven and overseas replacement Matthew Elliott surged the Tykes forward with a stand of 110.Craven, after making a career-best 72, drove the persevering Udal, who had opened the bowling, to mid-off and Elliott with his second half-century of the match meant the Northern county headed for Lord’s and the C&G Trophy Final in good heart – and with more than a sniff of avoiding the drop.It was not before Anthony McGrath had also been dismissed, caught behind by Academy youngster Tom Burrows, who kept wicket in place of knee-injury victim Pothas. A sign of the future, 17-year-old Burrows performed creditably and was delighted to capture his first dismissal in what is hoped to be a Hampshire career.But a seven-wicket victory for the reigning County Champions has left Hampshire with much to do.

Australia’s one-day captain Ricky Ponting is convinced that Shane Watson’s progress is such that the search for a quality all-rounder is almost over for the world champions.Watson had been making progress in leaps and bounds, Ponting told a media conference at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo on the eve of today’s ICC Champions Trophy semi-final with Sri Lanka.”That has been one concern for us – the all-rounder’s position. We have tried a few players over the last few years, they been rotated on different times. Nathan Hauritz has also been working hard over here and things are going along nicely for him,” Ponting said.Ponting also spoke about the Australian policy of having two different captains for the two versions of the game.”Knowing the way I am about my position and knowing the way Stephen [Waugh] is about his, I know there won’t be any sort of conflict. When the Test matches come around, I will obviously step aside and Stephen takes over as the boss of Australian cricket again, which is what he still is.”Ponting outlined the reasons for Australia’s overwhelming success over the last decade in international cricket.”We try to get the best out of the talent in our side. We play a fairly aggressive style of cricket, not only in one-dayers but in Test cricket as well. That is how Australian cricketers are brought up, playing that brand of cricket.”We have a talented side, and when you have a talented side, you always try to improve yourself and look ahead,” he added.Ponting does not believe that there is a big gap between Australia and the rest of the world when it comes to cricket.”So far the results have been good to us. We know that we are a good side, and we know that if we play to our best; we are going to be hard to beat.”Ponting also commented on the increased role of the third umpires in the ICC Champions Trophy: “I am very happy at the way it has worked. There have been minimal delays as well, which is very good as far as I am concerned.”It was during the 1996 World Cup that Australia decided to skip the games which were to be played in Sri Lanka. And most of the Islanders have not taken that issue too lightly. But, given the changing political climate in Sri Lanka and the road to peace becoming a reality, there is a sense of security all around.Even the Aussie one-day skipper seems to enjoy the new Sri Lanka.”This has been a fantastic tour so far. I am really surprised at the feeling and change in mood in the last few years. It is a great feeling at this moment to get around the shopping centres and the streets.”

The Hampshire Academy’s Southern Electric Premier League promotion push reaches a crucial phase against Division 2 leaders United Services at Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, tomorrow, 1pm.It’s a match the Young Hawks, in fourth place, can ill-afford to lose if their dreams of ECB Premier status next summer are to be realised.The Academy team has already lost two of its six matches – to Rowledge and Lymington – and need a win over confident US to claw back a 14-point deficit at the top.Hampshire 2nd XI coach Tony Middleton plans to send out his best available side, with Services likely to field the side which whipped Trojans by ten wickets last week.Watching the outcome with great interest will be Easton & Martyr Worthy, who two points behind, take on basement boys Rowledge, who are without key all-rounders Chris and Ricky Yates.In-form Sparsholt, who have won their last four games, expect skipper Rob Savage back at Old Tauntonians & Romsey.Sparsholt entertain Hursley Park in The Cricketer National Village Championship county final at the Norman Edwards Memorial Ground on Sunday, 2pm.Lymington visit struggling Trojans, while Hungerford welcome Hampshire’s Jason Laney back into the fold against Winchester KS, who have called up Paul Baker.St Cross Symondians will relish a repeat of last season’s outcome when they face Alton in a Division 3 crunch game at the Royal Green Jackets ground."They skittled us for 69 and won by eight wickets," lamented Alton skipper Julian Ballinger.Alton, three points behind Symondians in a tight top three, are again without influential off-spinner Matt Ireson, but John Halfacre returns.Ben Adams is back for St Cross – replacing elder Hampshire brother Jimmy, who is in action for Loughborough University – alongside hard hitting Graham Barrett and opener Marc Rees.Leaders Purbrook, two points ahead at the top, aim to put last week’s defeat by Bashley (Rydal) behind them and restore pride at the expense of off-colour Paultons.Bashley II plan to derail New Milton’s top-table charge, while Flamingo – in a highest ever fifth spot – will do well to continue their good run against Hambledon at The Holt.

India has lost the first Test of a series in England 12 times outof 14. The only exceptions are 1971 and 1986 and interestinglyenough India won the series both times.

Actually Indian contests in England can be divided into twodistinct phases with 1971 being the cut-off year. Prior to that,India played six rubbers in England (including the only Testplayed in 1932) and lost every one of them. Since 1971, India hasplayed seven Test series’ in England, winning two and losingfive. And there has been marked improvement since the dismalinitial record. Many times ­ in 1979, 1982, 1990 and 1996 ­ theseries has been lost narrowly. On all the four occasions, Indialost the first Test but drew the remaining matches.The present team can certainly take some inspiration from the1979 squad, the only previous outfit to get four Tests inEngland. On that occasion, India was given little chance againstan England team that, following the defections to Kerry Packer’sWorld Series Cricket, was probably the No 1 cricketing nation.India lost the first Test by an innings and 83 runs in four days,were shot out for 96 on the opening day of the second Test andyet heroically held on to draw not only that Lord’s Test but alsothe two remaining games.That England team, led shrewdly by Mike Brearley, was, as I said,arguably the best in the world. But it is astonishing how Indiahave repeatedly gone down in England to teams which are all toomodest in their composition.In 1959, India lost all five Tests, during one of the finestsummers, to an England side which had been thrashed 4-0 inAustralia just the previous winter. In 1967, England were notexactly on top of the world and yet India lost all three Tests.The home team were also a fairly mediocre outfit both in 1990 and1996 and yet India again contrived to lose the series each time.Paradoxically, England were the best team in the world when Indiaregistered the historic series victory in 1971.There was a time when the wicket and weather conditions inEngland were heavily loaded against the Indians. And while theseremain factors, they are now not as pronounced as in the past.Many of the current Indian players have had considerableexperience of playing in England, either on previous tours orthrough their county engagements. Moreover, in the second half ofthe English summer, the weather is more or less settled and thepitches do not pose the kind of problem they may pose in May andJune.What’s more, this is again a pretty modest England side. Theirmixed record at home in the last few years underlines this. Andthen there is the growing injury list. The bowling, in theabsence of Darren Gough, Andrew Caddick and Alex Tudor was prettyordinary at Lord’s. Now Simon Jones, inarguably their fastestbowler, and Graham Thorpe, arguably their most accomplishedbatsman (in addition to the already injured Marcus Trescothik),will be missing from the line-up at Trent Bridge.If after all this, the Indians are still one down in the seriesafter the opening game, a major factor has to be that they arenot playing up to potential. They have allowed themselves to beout batted, out bowled ­ and out thought.As I pointed out in a previous column, nothing will convince methat England’s batting line-up is as strong as India’s. Thebowling admittedly has discernible weaknesses and it may lack thefirepower to bowl out England twice. But India has the batting todraw a Test even if they lack the bowling to win it.The bookies, in fact, had a drawn game as a prohibitive favouriteon the second evening of the first Test with India 128 for one inreply to England’s 487 and who could find fault with them forthat? Virender Sehwag was going great guns, Rahul Dravid wasbatting in typically obdurate fashion and Sachin Tendulkar,Sourav Ganguly and Venkatsai Laxman had not even picked up theirbats to take on a bowling line-up that lacked both bite andvariety. However, as is well known, the scenario changeddramatically on the third morning.The fact of the matter is that India should never have allowedthe game to drift away so quickly. It took a No 8 batsman with anaverage of 7.81 going into the match and a dubious record of oncehaving registered five ducks in a row and a No 11, who has nopretensions to being any kind of batsman, to show up the failuresof the famed Indian batting line-up.Whichever way one looks at it, then, the onus is on the batsmen,more than on the bowlers, to perform. They have a greaterreputation to live up to. As the stronger of the two departments,it is imperative for the batting to shoulder much of theresponsibilities.Again, the present set of batsmen can take the cue from theirpredecessors in 1979. On that occasion too, the batting wasstronger than the bowling and so well did they perform that butfor a couple of unfavourable decisions by the umpires, Indiacould well have drawn level in the final Test at the Oval. Thereis nothing bowlers like better than commencing their job with abig total to defend. In these circumstances, even a toothlessbowling line-up can perform like hungry lions.

Thanks to the letdown by Australia, the Zimbabwe season of 2001/02 draws toa close this weekend. Mashonaland, having won all four of their matches,were aiming to complete a clean sweep of victories for the second successiveyear, but still needed to collect 16 points from this match to overtakeMidlands and retain the Logan Cup. By the close of the first day they werewell on their way, having dismissed the Academy for a rather spiritless 122and then scored 116 for three themselves.Gus Mackay, captaining Mashonaland, won the toss and put the Academy in tobat, proving once again that God is on the side of the big battalions.There had been a lot of rain during the previous week and the pitch hadtaken a soaking, although it did not give the bowlers as much help as hadbeen expected.Mashonaland opening bowlers Brighton Watambwa and Gus Mackay did not forcethe batsmen to play the ball often enough, and tended to pitch too shortduring their opening overs, allowing Charles Coventry and Neeten Chouhan tosurvive and gradually open out. They were beaten several times but thebowlers were unable to apply the consistent pressure required. Scoring wasnot easy on the heavy outfield, and as usual at Country Club there was noscoreboard worthy of the name.The opening pair scored a useful 37 together before Coventry (14) droveMackay into the covers and was smartly picked up off his toes by WaddingtonMwayenga, younger brother of Academy player Allan. This began a collapse:Innocent Chinyoka quickly followed, playing a ball from Mackay on to hisstumps via the inside edge. Stuart Matsikenyeri (5), returned from aprosperous club season in Australia, was lbw to an off-cutter from Mackayand captain Andre Hoffman (0) snicked Mwayenga to the keeper. Worse was tocome, as Conan Brewer (0) slashed the same bowler seemingly wide of gully,only for the giant Craig Evans to leap to his left and pluck a brilliantone-handed catch out of the air. The Academy were in deep trouble at 45 forfive.Opener Chouhan was still there, and Tom Benade settled in to partner himwith resolution until being caught at slip off the medium-pace of Evans for3. Piet Rinke looked calm and comfortable, and almost on the stroke oflunch leg-glanced Evans for the first boundary of the match.The return of Mackay after lunch soon ended Chouhan’s commendable vigil,trapped right in front of his stumps for 37. Barrett followed next ballwithout scoring, unlucky to be adjudged lbw after edging the ball on to hispads. This brought to an end a possibly unique record; he had hit at leastone six in each of his first six first-class innings.Rinke (19) quickly followed to a soft dismissal, caught in the covers off aleading edge, but the last pair, Sherezad Shah and Jordane Nicolle, showedup their seniors in the batting order with some sound batting. They needed12 to take the team total to three figures, and then added another 22 beforeNicolle was trapped lbw sweeping at Rogers.Nicolle scored 20 and Shah 14 not out, and the ease with which these twohandled the bowling put the entire innings into perspective. The pitch wasnot a serious problem, the bowling apart from Mackay at times not undulyhostile, but few of the batsmen had shown much fight.The Academy soon struck back, as Nicolle bowled a vicious leg-cutter to bowlLance Malloch-Brown for 2 in the first over. Then, just before tea, he hadTrevor Gripper (9) well caught low down by Matsikenyeri in the gully.After the interval, Rogers and Dion Ebrahim responded to the situation bydigging in deep, the runs slowing to a trickle. They added just 24 in thehour until drinks, after which Rogers began to open up until he ran himselfout for 42. Craig Evans hardly knows how to block, and he was soon takingheavy toll of the longitudinally challenged deliveries of the Academyspinners. By the close Ebrahim had scored an uncharacteristic 27 in morethan two hours, while Evans had 31.

Durham went to the top of the Norwich Union League division two as they heaped more embarrassment on Lancashire with a 24-run win at Chester-le-Street.Durham plundered 49 off their last five overs to reach 211 for six, but when Lancashire needed 48 off their last five they were restricted by Michael Gough and Paul Collingwood.Excellent bowling by Nicky Phillips reduced Lancashire from 83 for no wicket to 103 for four, and they limped along to close on 187 for eight.For the second successive Sunday the off breaks of Phillips (4-21) and Gough (2-27) proved decisive.Gough was also involved at the end of the Durham innings, sharing an unbroken stand of 48 with Andrew Pratt, who hit 25 off 13 balls and then claimed two excellent stumpings.Phillips even upstaged Muttiah Muralitharan, who was hit for ten in his first over by Danny Law but finished with two for 24 in nine overs. Law, opening for Durham for the first time, was bowled round his legs for 45 and Collingwood, the England one-day squad newcomer, was stumped for 23.Law was outpaced by 18-year-old Nicky Peng, who was three short of his first one-day 50 when he pulled a Chris Schofield long hop to mid-wicket.Lancashire also employed a pinch-hitting opener in Glen Chapple and he completed a maiden one-day half century off 41 balls, contributing 52 to a stand of 83 with Mike Atherton before he went down the pitch and was stumped in Phillips’ first over.Atherton made 62 off 124 balls before he was stumped in the 36th over as Durham turned up the pressure.

Whangarei produced one of its beautiful days today, a light breeze easing the heat under cloud-speckled blue skies. Unfortunately, it did not produce any cricket.Persistent rain over the previous day and a half coupled with high humidity meant that the covers could not protect the pitch and surrounds for this eighth-round Shell Trophy Northern Districts-Canterbury match from producing a tropical microclimate. It left the pitch soft and strategic points on the bowlers’ run ups like sponges.Early inspections immediately ruled out the morning session. A further umpires’ inspection at lunch moved the next decision-time back to 2.30pm when another session of pressing into the bare patches on the pitch and scuffing the run-ups, particularly at the Okara Park end, put the decision off until 3.30pm.At that point, the captains reached mutual agreement that it was in their best interests to allow the drying process to continue for the rest of the day and return to make a fresh start tomorrow. The toss was clearly the key. Neither would have been interested in either subjecting their top order to a searching couple of hours on an interesting pitch or, alternatively, their pacemen to unsafe bowling conditions.So, in the late afternoon, the ground was left to bake in glorious sunshine, disturbed only by Canterbury players going through their fielding practice routines.Weather permitting, the match will get underway tomorrow at 10.30am.

Delhi’s Sonnett Cricket Club opened their New Zealand tour with a 54-run win in the first fixture against Sparks’ Tour XI at Woolston Park, Christchurch earlier this week.The opening pair of Onkar Singh (63) and Jitender Singh (116) posted 171 runs for the first wicket. Jitender, a Punjab state player, spent 101 minutes at the crease facing 84 balls in an innings of forceful drives and delicate placement of the ball all around the field.Sonnett’s innings of the 35-over fixture closed at 271/3.Sparks’ Tours XI run chase received good support from two Lancaster Park/Woolston players heading to England for the off-season, Shayne McConnell (42) and Peter Robinson (71).Sparks’ Tours XI were dismissed for 217 in 30.2 overs giving the visitors a 54-run win.At the end of play, Sonnett’s vice president Sanjay Bhardwaj said “His boys really enjoyed their first match in New Zealand.”The Sonnett Cricket Club is in Christchurch for two weeks playing four fixtures against local club teams in that time. This tour follows the highly successful visit in January by the Desert Youth Cricket Club who played five games in Christchurch winning three and losing two, claiming a series win.