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The 2002 Red Stripe Competition will now be played in St. Lucia atMindoo Phillip Park, and Beausejour Stadium.The teams are: Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Canada, Rest of the Leewards and the Windwards Champions.The Event in St. Lucia starts on August 14th and ends on August 25thTravel day is August 26thAugust 27th and 28th Rest & PracticeAugust 29th and 30th Semi Finals (Barbados?)Sept. 1st FinalsFurther details will follow.The Canadian Cricket Association wishes to thank the West Indies Cricket Board and the ICC for their generous support and their sterling efforts to have Canada participate in this year’s Red Stripe Event. The WICB has further assisted our preparation by sending a WICB `A’ team to Canada later this month. Come out and see the future and present WICB stars of cricket. See further details on this website.Canada needs top level competition and lots of it in order to compete successfully at the Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2003. The Red Stripe competition is just an appetizer for the tremendous amount of preparation needed by Canada.Canada’s preparation is compounded by the fact that the 2003 Cricket World Cup will be held in our winter or off-season.Canada desperately needs supporters and sponsors for our dedicated players and volunteers, all of who make tremendous sacrifices to promote the sport we love.Cricket World Cup tickets go on sale to the public on July 15th. Further information is obtainable from the websitehttps://www.cricketworldcup.com.Get your tickets and help support the Canadian team’s entry to this World Cup. Your support is needed to ensure that we shall also be qualifiers for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies and the Americas

A gloomy and overcast day off the field was brightened up by a sparkling innings of 196 from Matthew Wood at the County Ground where Somerset ended the day 433 for 5 in their vital championship match against Kent.The twenty year old Devonian from Exmouth was in superb form as he cut and drove the Kent attack, who included Aussie star Steve Waugh, himself a former Somerset player, in their line up.Kent won the toss and put the Cidermen into bat, a decision they must have regretted as Jamie Cox and Wood put on 150 before the skipper was dismissed for 62.Mike Burns was out cheaply which brought the veteran Peter Bowler to the wicket. Together the oldest and youngest players in the side put on 98 until just before tea Bowler was out for 31.Keith Parsons and Wood pushed the score along quickly and both played some expansive shots. One classic cover drive by Parsons off Amjad Khan who was bowling with the second new ball pierced the field and left the Kent players as mere onlookers as it sped to the boundary.Wood brought up the hundred partnership in the ninety second over and seemed to be moving towards his first double century in the first class game until he tried to clip a ball over to the mid wicket boundary and was caught by David Masters, just four short of what would have been a thoroughly deserved milestone.With Parsons the young opener had added 121 for the fourth wicket to put his side in a strong position at 396 for 4.Parsons followed shortly afterwards, but before the end the good sized crowd were treated to some lusty blows from Ian Blackwell who particularly punished Min Patel on his way to an unbeaten 30 at the close of play.At the end of the day Kevin Shine told me: “This was an exceptional knock from Matt Wood, and how unlucky he was to be out just four runs short of his double hundred. We have had a good day and we are still in the ascendancy which is very pleasing. We scored good runs out there on a good paced wicket and we have still got some very attacking batsmen still to come.”He continued: “We have to be looking at getting 550 or even more depending on what happens tomorrow which will put us in a strong position. However we have got a tricky little first session in the morning.”The coach continued: “This has been a tough few weeks for us and it has been nice to see them bounce straight. This has been a thoroughly professional performance from the lads today.”A delighted Matt Wood told me: “I really am very happy with the way that I batted today, its just a bit of a shame I didn’t get to two hundred. Peter Bowler and Keith Parsons helped me to keep my concentration out there, and I had a bit of luck, which makes a change because we haven’t had too much of that this season.”

The flat track at the Antigua Recreation Ground meant that the fourthTest was always going to yield a high-scoring draw. The home team hadwon the previous Test in Barbados and leveled the series 1-1. Clearlythe momentum was with the West Indies, and one expected them to buildon it. It was then shocking to see a dry and docile track bereft ofgrass laid out for the Test match; a very negative move by the WestIndies authorities who denied their team a chance of gaining the leadin the series.

It is apparent that both teams misread the track and relied on pace inthis Test match. So much so that India decided to leave out HarbhajanSingh to bring in Anil Kumble. I have always maintained that theIndian team should play to its strength spin. Anil Kumble andHarbhajan Singh are world-class spinners and even if their recordwhile playing abroad is not very good, they would have proved a deadlyduo on this track.The toss didn’t make any great difference; I reckon that India wouldhave opted to bat first anyhow. So it was up to the Indians to cash inon Hooper’s generosity.The Indian innings though did not get off to the best of starts. ShivSunder Das is having a wretched time against the short-risingdeliveries. I feel sorry for the lad; he has to work on improving histechnique. His partner Wasim Jaffer looks to be a sound openingbatsman. He has the right technique and most importantly he alwayslooks to get behind the line of the ball.I was also delighted to see Ajay Ratra show a lot of application onhis way to his maiden Test hundred. It was an innings that put an endto the loose talk by some of the pundits. The game of cricket is easywhen played from a distance. The fact that some of these pundits werenicknamed `strokeless wonders’ in their playing days is something thatwe would do well to remember.Ganguly’s decision to prolong the innings after Ratra got to hishundred baffled me a lot. By doing so, the Indian skipper denied hisbowlers the chance of bowling a few extra overs that evening, whichmight have seen them grabbing a few more wickets. Remember, the WestIndies were under tremendous pressure that evening after Brian Larafell for a low score to Anil Kumble. Talking about Kumble, it washeartening to see him come out and bowl with a broken jaw. He bowledreally well, maintaining a good line and length, which is the key forsuccess on such docile tracks.With Kumble being injured, Tendulkar, who had to suffer themortification of being out for a gloden duck, was the one genuine spinoption India had. I was then surprised to see Tendulkar show a greaterinkling to bowl off-spin than leg-spin. I felt his leg-breaks woulddefinitely have proved more effective.I am sure that India really missed the services of Harbhajan Singh.The off-spinner would have been able to exploit the rough outside theoff-stump of the left-handed batsmen. Remember, the West Indies teamwas packed with five left-handed batsmen.The cricket from both the teams was defensive from the outset and itcontinued to be so, all through the five days. Never did I find anysense of urgency or purpose from either side. Such game-plans are notin the best interest of the game and are better forgotten.

As for India, the sight of Srinath struggling to generate pace must bea worrying. The senior fast bowler looked jaded and it is about timethe think-tank had a close look at their game-plan. I would still backIndia to win if they were to play two spinners rather than placeabsolute faith in pace.The West Indies bowlers will be going after the Indian batsmen atSabina Park. Our think-tank has to realise that it is no good tosettle for a draw. The boys should go out with a positive frame ofmind to win the Test match. This is indeed their last chance to returnhome wreathed in glory.

Despite some brave batting by Rob Turner and Richard Johnson, Somerset eventually lost their unbeaten record in the county championship when they were beaten by Warwickshire by 88 runs earlier today.Resuming at their overnight score of 248 for 6 the Cidermen lost wickets until last man Richard Johnson came to the wicket to join his Rob Turner.The injured paceman hit some lusty blows including two sixes off Shaun Pollock, but in the end his luck ran out and he was dismissed for 38,leaving Rob Turner stranded on 83 not out as Somerset were all out for 357.After the game Kevin Shine told me: "I am very disappointed with the result, but we did put up a good fight. When `Johnno’ went in he played beautifully and started whacking it about. It was good to watch and for a time you felt that perhaps we could get there, but it wasn’t to be."The coach continued: "We sorely missed `Johnno’in the field and all of our bowlers did well. It was a great knock by Rob, very brave on an up and down wicket and he got hit several times."

It might not be at the forefront of the mind of anybody involved in the match, but New Zealand and England will be playing for important points in the ICC Test Championship when they begin their three-Test series in Christchurch on Wednesday.The concept of the championship is a good one, but it will not really command great attention until the full cycle of home and away series have been completed to give a true indication of relative positions. Having said that, should the Australians not manage to win the series currently taking place in South Africa and there is a change at the top, there will be a sudden surge of interest in the table.Australia and South Africa are almost in a league of their own, but the outcome of the New Zealand v England series will have interesting repercussions among what might be termed the also rans.England won the last series played in New Zealand in 1996/97 and, according to the way the calculations are made, they need to win again to retain the two points held in the current table. This is where it all becomes a bit complicated and far from straightforward. It is why India did not shoot upthe table when they beat Zimbabwe and why Australia need to win in SouthAfrica to retain first place.Because there have not been home and away series between all the countries,the system takes account of last series played and adds the points won then.Even though the teams did not know they were playing for ICC TestChampionship points at the time. So, a team with 10 points from 10 series has an average of 1.00. If, however, two points were gained from a series that is now superseded by one in which that team gets one point for a drawn series, their average is now 9 points from 10 series, or 0.90. It’s very simple. I’m told!Anyway, England lie fourth at the moment but, should New Zealand take the series, they would leapfrog not only England but also Sri Lanka in third place. The Kiwis’ average would be 1.19 as opposed to Sri Lanka’s 1.14. England, on the other hand, would drop down to fifth equal with the West Indies.Just to cover everything, a drawn series from which both sides take one point would see New Zealand move into fourth place while England would drop to fifth. So, while enjoying the cricket, all you have to do is arm yourself with a calculator and a complete record of Test series going back over the last decade or so, and you too can keep your neighbour informed of the exact state of play in the ICC Test Championship table. It might be safer to rely on CricInfo to tell you what happens when the series is all over!The table, as it stands, reads:

Team       Played   Won     Lost   Drawn   Points   AverageAustralia       13      9       2       2       20      1.54South Africa    16     11       3       2       24      1.50Sri Lanka       14      7       5       2       16      1.14England         15      7       6       2       16      1.07New Zealand     16      7       6       3       17      1.06West Indies     14      6       7       1       13      0.93Pakistan        16      4       7       5       13      0.81India           14      4       7       3       11      0.79Zimbabwe        16      3      11       2        8      0.50Bangladesh       4      0       4       0        0       –

Double Hampshire junior indoor cricket champions. That’s Havant, who proudly show off their medals after winning both the Hampshire Under-13 and Under-16 Indoor Cups at Winchester’s River Park Leisure Centre.Stuart Ransley, Chris Morgan and Simon Hodgson sparkled as Havant saw off plucky St Cross Symondians and near neighbours Waterlooville to lift the Under-13 crown.The Under-16s comfortably beat Sarisbury Athletic in the final, after scraping a one-run semi-final win over Hursley Park.Matt Palmer cracked a superb 71 as Hursley were dismissed for 141, chasing Havant’s 142-5.Results – Under-13 Semi-finals
Waterlooville 195-5 (Shephard 61, Burnett 34, Robson 28, Hillman 26)
Hook & Newnham Basics 44Havant 153-2 (Morgan 39, Ransley 28, Hodgson 27, Hardacre 22)
St Cross Symondians 132-4 (Bayliss 26, Jenkins 25, Porter 25, Lovett 20, Walker 2-26)Final:
Havant 143-4 (Ransley 50, Morgan 37, Hodgson 24)
Waterlooville 116-3 (Hillman 35, Robson 28, Hudson 23)Under-16 Semi-finalsBasingstoke & North Hants 88-2 (Davies 26, James 23)
Sarisbury Athletic 90-0 (Journeaux 28, Evans 26, Ingram 24)Havant 142-5 (Wade 44, Molyneaux 33)
Hursley Park 141 (Palmer 71, van der Merwe 28)Final:
Havant 136 (Wade 57, Molyneaux 32)
Sarisbury Athletic 87 (Evans 43, Molyneaux 2-24).

Ricky Skerritt would have taken in a healthy monetary collection afterthe first day of the fifth and final Test yesterday.The West Indies manager, acting on suggestions from his captain andcoach, has instituted a system of fines for this match for thoseguilty of the slackness evident throughout the series.Some would have had to pay up last night for wanton shots that haveput the West Indies in a familiar bind at 214 for nine and the mostculpable was Carl Hooper himself.The skipper entered the fray in the first over after lunch with theWest Indies already in strife at 54 for four and Alan Donald, fast andeager, making up for the Antigua Test he missed with a strainedhamstring.Hooper met Brian Lara, on seven, so that the responsibility of arecovery rested with the West Indies’ two best and most experiencedbatsmen.For an hour-and-25-minutes, they played with the diligence thesituation, and their roles, demanded.They added 53 and raised the spirits of a small Sabina Park depressedby the earlier, cheap loss of the three young Jamaicans of whom LeonGarrick’s first innings in Test cricket was ended by Donald’s firstball of the match.Concerned by the growing partnership, Shaun Pollock devised a plan asold as the game itself. He set a deep square-leg back and simplychallenged the batsmen to hook.It had worked twice in the series but then the delinquent batsman wasRamnaresh Sarwan, a boy of 20, new to the ways of Test cricket. Hecould scarcely believe that he could so con someone in his 85th Testand the captain at that. But he did. In his seventh over of a lengthyspell after lunch, captain Pollock set up his counterpart with aclever slower ball that he pushed into the off-side, followed by thebouncer, fast and rising steeply.Hooper could not control his first hook shot of the day and the ballsailed fully 60 yards into Gary Kristen’s safe grasp. It was a stroke,like the pull that lobbed to mid-on in his previous innings inAntigua, that was not uncommon in his earlier cricketing life but thathe had seemed to exorcise since his return.In Pollock’s next over, Ridley Jacobs, who has fallen into a slumpsince his unbeaten113 in the third Test, edged Pollock to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher who held one of the five out of the eight catchesoffered him for the day.It left the West Indies 107 for five and Lara with the bowlers to seewhat they could make of the last half of the innings. That theyexactly doubled the total was due to Lara’s skilfully compiled 81,lasting three hours, 50 minutes with 12 fours, spirited batting byMerv Dillon, 25, and Dinanath Ramnarine, unbeaten 28, and luck.Fortune smiled most on Dillon who had two chances to Boucher, thefirst before he had scored, and one to Lance Klusener at midon; theball after he hoisted left-arm spinner Paul Adams for the day’s onlysix.The West Indian wastefulness began with the first ball of the matchwhen Garrick, the diminutive, 24-year-old opener on debut, cut Donaldobligingly straight to gully. Only one other batsman, the SouthAfrican Jimmy Cook, had suffered such immediate indignity in his firstTest.Garrick deserved sympathy. He was not in the original squad but wasrushed down to Kingston from his home in St Ann the day before andtold he was in the eleven.It was hardly proper preparation for the start of a Test career but itwas typical of how things are done in West Indies cricket these days.For instance, it was learnt, through the television coverage, thatRamnaresh Sarwan was carrying a stress fracture of the right femur andwould have to rest for at least four weeks. But, said Skerritt, it wasnot the reason he was omitted.By lunch, taken at 53 for three, the left-handers ShivnarineChanderpaul and Chris Gayle had also gone. Chanderpaul, nevercomfortable, presented Boucher with his first catch from an edgeddefensive push at Jacques Kallis.Gayle sliced his loose backfoot shot to gully, a carbon copy of hisdismissal in the previous Test and another dismissal worthy of a heftyfine.When Marlon Samuels was Donald’s third victim in the first over afterlunch, fending leaden-footed at a fast ball that held its line, Laraand Hooper came together. It appeared to be the West Indies’ last hopeof revival.Hooper let them down but Lara responded to his dismissal by takingcontrol.He was 35, off 92 balls with four fours, when his captain departed. Heaccelerated with thrilling drives, cuts and pulls so that he added 46off 64 balls with eight more fours before Pollock dismissed him.Lara’s only problems were caused by the bouncer. He took blows fromboth Donald and Pollock and, caught in two minds to another shortlifter from Pollock, he fended a catch to slip off the back of thebat.The last time Dillon and Ramnarine were together they had littleintention of batting. This time they played with spirit to frustratethe South Africans.Dillon spent over two hours, adding 54 with Lara and 21 withRamnarine, before Donald dispatched him with the second ball with thesecond new ball.But Ramnarine was there at the end with his highest Test score, 26,from the last two wickets and Courtney Walsh is still in.

The unveiling of the Wilf Wooller Memorial Gates will take place on Friday, June 29th during the first day of Glamorgan`s County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Cardiff.The gates, at the entrance to the Sophia Gardens ground, will be formally unveiled during a short ceremony, attended by Glamorgan players of the past and present, club officials, and also Tom Graveney, the former England batsman.The ceremony will take place between 1.00pm and 1.20pm during the lunch interval on the first day of the Championship match, and the day of the Glamorgan Former Players` Association annual reunion.As a result of the official unveiling, the start of play on the first day of the County Championship match will therefore be brought forward by 15 minutes to 10.45am, with a slightly extended lunch interval, running from 1.00 until 1.55pm.

The thousands who thronged the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam to watch its first ever Twenty20, and Yuvraj Singh’s long-awaited comeback from cancer, had to go home disappointed as rain had the final say. Persistent rain in the evening meant that the toss was itself a non-starter. The match was called off without a ball bowled nearly an hour and 30 minutes after the scheduled 7pm start.There was some consolation for the crowd, though, as Yuvraj made an appearance to loud cheers when he was felicitated by the local association, despite the drizzle. The rain has been a continuing trend in this tour. The Tests at Hyderabad and Bangalore had weather interruptions, but India managed to secure wins in both. The teams will now head to Chennai for the second and final Twenty20 on Tuesday. From the teams’ perspective, the rain couldn’t have come at a worse time, given that the World Twenty20 is only a couple of weeks away. They will hope for better weather in Chennai, or risk going to Sri Lanka short on T20 practice.

North Zone leads the Duleep Trophy table with ten points from twomatches, thanks largely to the batting heroics of Virender Shewag onSunday in their match against West Zone at the Punjab CA Stadium,Mohali, Chandigarh.As the best part of the match was ruined by heavy fog, North werechasing the West score of 284 for the all important first inningslead. Resuming at 217/5 with Shewag and Pankaj Dharmani at the crease,the North innings got off a troubled start when Iqbal Siddiqui hadDharmani trapped in front on his overnight score of 28. North werereduced to 233/6 leaving the match even stevens. Shewag along withSharandeep Singh put on 48 runs for the seventh wicket as Singh wasdismissed for 17. At 281/7 came in Gagandeep Singh and before he wasdismissed for three at 285, North had gained the first innings lead.Both the batsmen were claimed by SR Saxena.Ashish Nehra was the next to go LBW to Bahatule for a duck at 292. Thelast batsman Surendra Singh hit three boundaries in his innings of 15before being dismissed by Siddiqui. The North innings came to an endat 331, leaving Shewag with an unbeaten 162 off 190 balls. One six andtwenty-four boundaries flowed from his bat in his four hours and fiftyminutes stay at the wicket. Siddiqui was the best of the bowlers with31-4-116-5.West were 50/1 at the close of the match in their second innings.Wasim Jaffer remained unbeaten on 29 with NK Patel on 11. West Zonecollected three points from the match and have an aggregate of sixpoints from two games.