Left-arm spinner Claude Henderson took five for 40 to bowl Western Province to victory by 127 runs over Eastern Province at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on Monday. The win earned Province 18 points, with EP claiming seven.Man-of-the-match Henderson played the key role in dismissing EP for 165 in search of their target of 293. However, credit was also due to left-arm wrist spinner Paul Adams, who took two for 55 off 28 overs.Together, and for the most part in tandem, they bowled all but 30 of the overs Province needed to dismiss EP. Bad balls were few and far between as the slow men whittled away at their moderately obdurate opponents.The best of them was EP captain James Bryant, who defied the visitors for more than two hours and for 123 deliveries in scoring his 40.Carl Bradfield and Bryant added 44 for the second wicket, but the only other significant stand, also worth 44 runs, was shared by the fifth-wicket pair of Justin Kemp and Murray Creed.EP reached lunch on 46 for one and tea on 114 for four – seemingly placed well enough to save the match. However, their guard then slipped and it was all over 45 minutes before the scheduled close.Province resumed their second innings on 118 for six, with their fate largely in the hands of seventh-wicket pair Graeme Smith and Alan Dawson.They did not disappoint, scoring 80 and 53 not out respectively in a partnership of 93 that enabled the visitors to declare on 212 for eight an hour before lunch. Opener Smith’s patience saw him stay at the crease for more than four-and-a-half hours in which he faced 217 balls and hit eight fours.

Orissa beat Assam by 51 runs at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta earliertoday. A few days ago the coach of the Bengal team Palash Nundy wassaying that Orissa is the team of the future from the East. Hecouldn’t have made a better statement. Debashish Mohanty and his teammates put up a thoroughly professional display to outplay Assam in theRanji Trophy one-day encounter.Batting first after being put in Orissa totalled 249 for seven intheir 50 overs. They did so, after being reduced to 94 for the loss offour wickets in the 23rd over. A fifth wicket partnership of 123 runsin 139 balls runs between Pravanjan Mullick and P Jayachandra took thegame away from Assam. Mullick who scored an unbeaten 83 in 119 ballsshowed a lot of common sense while batting. He had six fours, alldrives in front of the wicket, on both sides. Jayachandra, who wasdropped by wicket keeper Vinayak Samant when on 14 had 52 beforeholing out to Parag Das at mid wicket. Both, helped by some shoddyfielding from the Assam team ran well during their partnership. As forAssam, left-arm medium pacer Gautam Dutta and Javed Zaman lookedimpressive. However, the others did not back them up.When Assam batted, Mohanty ripped through the top order. He had Paragdas caught at short leg in his very first over. Then, Ganesh Kumar wascaught behind by Gautam Gopal in Mohanty’s third over as he tried tosteer him. None of the Assam batsmen looked confident against him.Only Vinayak Samant managed to negotiate him with some degree ofcomfort. Samant was the top scorer for Assam with 84 in 115 balls witheight boundaries. The rest of the batsmen failed except for tailenderSunil Subramanium who made 27. The Assam innings folded for 199 in46.4 overs.Orissa, now have 4 points from two matches. Their last league matchagainst Bengal on December 10 will finally decide whether they willqualify for the Wills Trophy or not.

Somerset coach Kevin Shine confirmed that it was likely that he would take a squad of 12 to The Oval on Wednesday for the four day CricInfo Championship match against Surrey.The final selection would be down to Jamie Cox the captain, and would depend upon the fitness tests that Richard Johnson is undergoing over the next two days.It was likely to be a “different” selection from the Leicestershire game and the final team on the day could depend upon whether a new or used pitch was used for the match.Despite missing Saqlain Mushtaq and their England players Surrey are still able to field a strong side and will provide a stern test for the Cidermen.

While the West Indies were enjoying a day off taking in Africa’sbountiful wildlife on a tour of a game park outside Harare, India didthem a favour at the Queen’s Club yesterday.Their hard-fought victory over Zimbabwe, with four wickets and onlyfour balls to spare, ensured their place in the final of thetriangular Coca-Cola Cup series and all but guaranteed that the WestIndies would be their opponents come July 7.Zimbabwe’s third successive defeat left their hopes of stillqualifying resting on an unlikely sequence of events and furthercompounded the problems they have faced over the past week, on and offthe field.The West Indies would have to lose their two remaining matches againstIndia on Saturday and Wednesday and the other against Zimbabwe here onSunday to be level on two points with the home team.The finalists would then be determined on run-rate, and Zimbabwe wouldneed a massive victory on Sunday to erase what is now a considerabledeficit.Zimbabwean cricket is going through difficult times at present.The euphoria of an admirable victory over India in the second Testnine days ago to square the series has quickly evaporated through aprotest by senior players against the Zimbabwe Cricket Union’s (ZCU)selection policy and injuries that have sidelined Andy Flower andHeath Streak, their two finest players.Streak stepped down as captain prior to the opening match against theWest Indies last Saturday because he was upset that his opinions werenot being respected by a selection panel of six that did not includeeither him or the coach, the former Australian fast bowler, CarlRackemann.An accommodation was reached after an animated meeting between theparties that added captain and coach to the panel, increasing it to anunwieldy eight.There have also been squabbles over pay levels, notably in Englandlast year, that led to the emigration of two key players, MurrayGoodwin and Neil Johnson, to English county cricket. These have notyet been adequately solved, as the Zimbabwean dollar continues itsplunge in value and the game becomes more expensive to run.As in South Africa, the debate over the pace of selection purely onmerit against that based on the encouragement of the emerging blackcricketers the so-called affirmative action has also tended to divideplayers and administrators.Peter Chingkoka, the respected and very able black Zimbabwean whoheads the ZCU, has to lead with all the tact of a Kofi Annan to keepmatters on an even keel. The recent defeats would not have helped.With a pool of no more than 300 players to chose from, Zimbabwe havedone well to hold their own at Test and One-Day International level.But the game was previously restricted to the minority white and Asianpopulations and these are now dwindling through emigration in the wakeof political, social and economic turmoil.Development programmes aimed at carrying the game to the majorityblack population have been in place for some time and more blackplayers have made their way into the Zimbabwe team than into SouthAfrica’s since 1992 when they both gained Test status, South Africafor the second time.Several have come through the well-appointed academy and havebenefited from the excellent facilties in the main centres. Five ofthe Zimbabwe A team in the practice match against the West Indies onTuesday were black.Henry Olonga, the personable, articulate and successful fast bowler,was Zimbabwe’s first real black star cricketer. But he has drifted outof the limelight through injury. In Tatenda Taibu, the tiny, livewire,18-year-old wicket-keeper, they have an obvious personality who shouldbe a role model and inspiration for the hundreds of those youngschoolchildren now being introduced to the game.But what Zimbabwe cricket needs most of all right now is moreconsistent success on the field and patience, unity and understandingoff it. The two are intertwined.

Hatton National bank beat Seylan Bank convincingly by eight wickets, to win the Mercantile Cricket Association Challenge trophy, 2001, at NCC grounds today. The star studded HNB side, captained by Russell Arnold, completely outplayed their opponents; restricting them to 153 for nine and reaching the victory target with more than 20 overs to spare and with eight wickets in hand.Seylan came to the final full of confidence having been the only side to remain unbeaten throughout the competition and having defeated HNB in their league round encounter.In the final,however, nothing went Seylan’s way. They lost the wicket of Nuwan Shiroman in the very first over of the game, bowled by Dulip Liyanage, and from there onwards it was HNB’s day. They slumped further, by losing two more wickets, with the score on eight in the sixth over of the day.Seylan batsmen’s efforts to stage a come back were in vain and if Akalanka Ganegama had taken the return catch which Mahela Jayawardene offered him when he was on 29, Seylan wouldn’t have gone past the 150 mark. Jayawardene went onto make a half century with a solitary boundary and a six. He occupied the crease for 113 minutes and faced 91 balls. The only other noteworthy contribution came from the bat of Kaushalya Weerarathne, who made an unbeaten 20. In the bowling department, Akalanka Ganegama, Sajeeva Weerakoon and Kumar Dharmasena picked up two wickets apiece.Seylan could manage only 153 for nine in their allotted 50 overs and that’s not something Chaminda Vaas and co. could have defended against a strong HNB batting line up.When HNB replied, Avihka Gunawardene, who made a fine hundred in the four day unofficial test against Pakistan A, at the same venue, continued from where he left off, to lay the foundation for an easy HNB win. He made 82 off just 76 deliveries, hitting 12 boundaries and one six, off Kaushalya Weerarathne over long off. On their way to victory HNB just lost the wickets of T.M Dilshan and Malintha Warnapura. Dilhara Fernando accounted for the wicket of Dilshan who was caught by Jayawardene while Tilan Samaraweera clean bowled Warnapura.HNB reached the target with just two wickets down in 28.2 overs with Gunawardene on 82 and Chamara Silva on 21. Gunawardene was declared man of the match.

Jaipur will host the 2001-2002 Central Zone Ranji Trophy one dayleague competition from January 2 to 7, the executive secretary of theRajasthan Cricket Association Anant Vyas said in Jaipur on Tuesday.Last year’s runners-up Railways open their campaign in the 2001-2002Central Zone Ranji Trophy Championship with a match against UttarPradesh at New Delhi from October 20 to 23.The following are the fixtures for the various Central Zonetournaments:Ranji Trophy one day league (at Jaipur):January 2: MP vs Rajasthan, UP vs Railways,
January 3: Vidarbha vs Rajashtan, UP vs MP,
January 4: Vidarbha vs Railways, UP vs Rajasthan,
January 6: Rajasthan vs Railways, MP vs Vidharbha,
January 7: UP vs Vidarbha, MP vs Railways.Ranji Trophy:October 20 to 23: Rajasthan vs Vidarbha (Jaipur), UP vs Railways(New Delhi),
October 27 to 30: UP vs MP (Indore), Railways vsRajasthan (New Delhi),
November 3 to 6: UP vs Rajasthan (Kanpur), Vidarbhavs MP (Nagpur),
November 10 to 13: MP vs Rajasthan(Jaipur), Railways vs Vidarbha (Nagpur),
November 22 to 25: UPvs Vidarbha (Kanpur), MP vs Railways (Gwalior).Cooch Behar Trophy (U-19) league (one day matches followed by threeday games):October 14 to 17: UP vs Rajasthan (Jaipur), MP vs Vidarbha (Indore),
October 21 to 24: MP vs Rajasthan (Indore), Railways vs Vidarbha (Nagpur),
October 28 to 31: Rajasthan vs Vidarbha (Nagpur), Railways vs UP (Moradabad),
November 9 to 12: UP vs Vidarbha (Kanpur), MP vs Railways (New Delhi),
November 16 to 19: UP vs MP (Kanpur), Railways vs Rajasthan (Jaipur).
Vijay Merchant Trophy (U-16):November 16 to 18: UP vs Rajasthan (Udaipur), MP vs Vidarbha (Nagpur),
November 22 to 24: MP vs Vidarbha (Indore), Vidharbha vs Rajasthan
(Nagpur), November 28 to 30: UP vs Vidarbha (Kanpur), MP vs Rajasthan(Udaipur).Under-14 Tournament:November 28 to 30: Vidarbha vs UP (Nagpur), Rajasthan vs MP (Bhilwara),
December 19 to 21: MP vs UP (Indore), Vidarbha vs Rajasthan (Nagpur),
December 25 to 27: Rajasthan vs UP (Kanpur), MP vs Vidarbha (Indore).

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), today confirmed that it suffered losses totalling in excess of US $500,000 from two investments made on the US Stock Market. The investments were made with Wall Street bank – Merrill Lynch & Co. – and were made without the board’s proper authority. The investments were made on behalf of the WICB by Chief Financial Officer, Richard Jodhan and Executive Secretary, Andrew Sealy. The second investment was made while the CFO was acting as CEO.In a detailed release on the two investments – one for US $496,000 in January, 2000 and the other of US $3 000 000 in September, 2000 – the WICB confirmed that both Messrs (Richard) Jodhan and (Andrew) Sealy did not have the “independent resolutions for making the investment which would have specifically given power and authority to the CFO and Executive Secretary to execute the final investment documents.”The Board’s release continued by saying “consultation with the Executive Committee was necessary based on the CFO’s own recommendation for full consideration of the investment options and details.”According to the WICB release, the initial investment (US $496,000) was not challenged until almost a year after the fact. On the matter of the second investment (US $3 000 000), the board said it “found that there was no independent Board resolution giving Messrs Jodhan and Sealy authority to make that specific investment of US$3 000 000, nor was there an independent resolution authorising the borrowing.”The WICB also said that Merrill Lynch “had not required a Board resolution for the investment but accepted the authorisation of Messrs Jodhan and Sealy (who were two of the four signatories to the Merrill Lynch account) as having the requisite power and authority.”According to the WICB, “The Board has investigated the matter thoroughly and obtained legal advice.” The release continued by saying that the Board is now “completely satisfied that there was no impropriety and specifically no evidence of falsification of Board resolutions and that Messrs. Jodhan and Sealy, while ill-advised were acting in good faith.”In accepting responsibility, the Board has mandated that a Financial Procedures Manual be developed as a matter of urgency. The Board also confirmed that the matter was “brought to the attention of the Board under Mr. Rousseau’s chairmanship but the Board had not considered any disciplinary action. Moreover, both Messrs Jodhan and Sealy for unrelated reasons were leaving the organisation.”News of these investments came shortly after former president, Pat Rousseau left office last month. Rousseau upon resigning, fired a few salvos and challenged the WICB to produce the Minutes from the Board meeting which gave the CFO permission to invest the funds on the stock market.

Kent captain Matthew Fleming – the distant cousin of James Bond creator Ian Fleming – was Spitfires’ man with the golden arm as the hosts pulled off a remarkable 43-run Norwich Union League win over relegation threatened Surrey Lions.Chasing Kent’s disappointing 42-over total of 207 all out, the basement Lions appeared to be coasting at 147 for three, but Kent’s fielding and Fleming’s incredibly accurate throwing turned the game on its head as Surrey conceded four run outs to the home skipper.Top-scorer Ian Ward, with 51 from 90 balls, started the rot when he chanced a single to backward point only to see Fleming throw down the stumps to spark a suicidal collapse that saw Surrey lose their last seven wickets for 17 runs in the space of 39 balls.Ben Hollioake suffered a seemingly ageless death when he was given out stumped after the fourth slow motion replay, then in the next over Nadeem Shahid edged a catch to Paul Nixon to lift a crowd of 7,500 – Kent’s biggest crowd for a county match since 1993.That was the cue for Fleming’s license to thrill as the Spitfires’ skipper sent back Jonathan Batty, Saqlain Mushtaq and Martin Bicknell with three direct hits in the space of four balls.It was left to Martin McCague, making his first league appearance of the summer, to polish the job off by plucking out the middle stump of Ed Giddins to re-ignite Kent’s title hopes.Spitfires had built their total around another steady one-day knock of 74 from 68-balls from overseas star Andrew Symonds.The Queenslander featured in a fourth-wicket stand of 93 with Rob Key (26), but otherwise no Kent batsman made it into the 20s in a disappointing display after winning the toss.The victory, Kent’s seventh in 11 starts, leaves the Hop county in second spot, two points behind leaders Leicestershire who have two games in hand.

The South African cricket team will arrive in Zimbabwe 5 September 2001 to play two Tests, a one-day warm-up and three One-Day Internationals. The following is a squad of 17 which will represent Zimbabwe against the touring South African team:Heath Streak (captain), Guy Whittall (vice-captain), Andy Blignaut, Alistair Campbell, Stuart Carlisle, Dion Ebrahim, Andrew Flower, Grant Flower, Travis Friend, Douglas Hondo, Hamilton Masakadza, David Mutendra, Henry Olonga, Raymond Price, Tatenda Taibu, Brighton Watambwa, Craig Wishart. Babu Meman (manager), Carl Rackemann (coach), Amato Machikicho (physiotherapist), Malcolm Jarvis (fitness trainer).

It was a nice change of scenery for everyone when we moved from Chennai to Hyderabdad, even if they hotel wasn’t as nice as the Meridian. At least we were close to shops, the Internet and Pizza Hut.The food markets are handy for everyone to stock up their fridges instead of using room service all the time. The Internet is much cheaper than at the Business Centre in the hotel at 30 rupees an hour which is only two New Zealand dollars. And with 25 PCs lined up for use, as compared to only two at the hotel, there is no-one waiting to get on the Internet at any one time.Pizza Hut is a blessing in disguise for those of us who are sick of the spicy curries they dish up out of here even though you ask for a very, very mild.The team has had a shock with the change in standards since leaving Chennai where we were treated well and everything ran smoothly. We are now experiencing what it is really like to tour India as things go wrong and you can never assume anything.The bus was late for our first practice, the practice facilities were scruffy, very small and enclosed.The next day was Sunday, and the morning of our first one-day game against Mumbai who we beat in the first round in Chennai. The matches start at 9am which means a 6.30am breakfast in order to catch the bus to the ground at 7.15am.The only problem is that the breakfast area doesn’t open until 7.30am. So not only was breakfast late but we were late getting to the ground.When we did get there, the changing room was dark and smelly, the lights didn’t work, there were cobwebs everywhere and the toilets didn’t extend to toilet paper.Our warm-ups were done on a scruffy outfield and it was hard to tell the pitch from the outfield.Then to cap things off, three-quarters of the way through a game which was shaping for a great finish, a pipe burst and water came gushing up close to the pitch and the game could not be finished.Everyone was pretty grumpy and disappointed at the state of events but that’s India. You have to expect the unexpected and learn to embrace issues and tolerate things that are out of your control.We all learnt a valuable lesson and are now trying to be bigger than the situation and to make the most of every opportunity by turning it into a learning experience.Two days later we were back at the stadium for our second match. It too was abandoned because the pitch prepared for us was so soft it was deemed dangerous to play on.Having waited around for much of the day to see if it would harden we went back to the hotel only to find that those of us who had left our keys at reception had to wait some more before we could get into our rooms.Why?Because they did not have our keys as there were away getting polished. Only in India could this be possible.