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West Indies have suffered yet another injury blow to their tour of South Africa as Wavell Hinds was forced to return home on Sunday because of a groin problem.Hinds picked up the injury during the drawn third Test at Cape Town, and Ricky Skerritt, the West Indian team manager, confirmed that Hinds’s tour was over. No replacement will be sent for ahead of the fourth and final Test which begins at Centurion on Friday, although an extra player may be called up for the one-day series which follows.Hinds is the fourth West Indies player to head home from the tour following injuries to Omari Banks, Jerome Taylor and Marlon Samuels.The latest blow came as West Indies endured another mediocre day on the field, dismissed for just 263 in the second innings of their tour matchagainst Easterns, the South African first-class champions, at Willowmore Park in Benoni.

SYDNEY, Jan 3 AAP – A bout of chicken pox failed to prevent veteran Alec Stewart from pressing on with England’s strong start in the fifth Ashes Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.At lunch on the second day, the tourists were 7-341 on the back of Stewart’s impressive 71 from 86 deliveries after he was diagnosed with the illness yesterday.He took to the depleted Australian attack, hitting 11 fours today, giving him a total of 15 for the innings after he resumed on a score of 20.In contrast, John Crawley made slow progress, taking 40 minutes to move off his overnight score of six.He was 22 not out at lunch with Andy Caddick unbeaten on four.Andy Bichel made the break through for Australia when he bowled Stewart shortly before lunch.Ahead of the break, Bichel also squeezed in the wicket of Richard Dawson, caught behind by Adam Gilchrist for just two.Stewart’s knock drove him past Geoff Boycott as England’s third highest Test run scorer with 8,149 runs behind Graham Gooch (8,900) and David Gower (8,231).

Few bowlers, if any, in the recent history of New Zealand’s international cricket have revelled as Shayne O’Connor did in the extra labours required of him last summer when injury deprived the side of its best performers.The Otago left-arm medium-fast swing bowler O’Connor was in his element and produced some of the finest, and most consistent, bowling of his career.With Chris Cairns, Geoff Allott, Dion Nash and Daniel Vettori missing in action, someone had to pick up the work rate and it fell to O’Connor.It had its effects, however, and after the one-off Boxing Day Test with Zimbabwe, O’Connor was put out to pasture unceremoniously and left to recharge his batteries. In the process the work load of Africa took its toll and O’Connor broke down requiring surgery on his knee.Effectively, his summer was over. Given the improvements he had made, although he says it was just reverting to how he bowled at high school, and the speed he had regained, it was a disappointing end for all concerned in seeing O’Connor gain the recognition for the work he had done.None felt it more than he did.It was his goal to come back to New Zealand from Africa and show that he could thrive in home conditions. Injury meant that had to wait.The good news is, however, that O’Connor has fronted up for the first selection exercise of the new cricket year, the limited overs tour to Sri Lanka, fit and ready to go. Whether he is named or not, there is always the prospect of the tour to Pakistan in September and Australia to follow that.It is an interesting consideration whether O’Connor deserves to be categorised as more of a Test bowler is an interesting point.While he took some fearful punishment earlier in his career as an at-the-death bowler, he showed much greater understanding of his role in Africa and picked up a key five wickets for 46 runs in New Zealand’s ICC KnockOut semi-final win over Pakistan.”I do prefer Test cricket but I am still a cricket lover and I do enjoy one-dayers for a change,” he said.”I believe I have progressed as a one-day bowler. I bowled with a lot more self-belief in Africa. We did a lot more training beforehand and I had a lot more confidence in my action. Personally, I felt as good as I ever had,” he said.O’Connor found himself able to forget thinking about the last ball bowled knowing that if he did things right the next ball should be in the right place.Small things, but vitally important when the heat is on and a batsman like Lance Klusener or Nicky Boje is on the charge.Taking the role of senior bowler for the Test matches placed a different kind of pressure on him and he admitted to thriving in the situation.Having regained some of the pace he had lost, the result of minor changes to his bowling technique over the years, he was able to cap off the more specific training the New Zealanders had undertaken.”It was almost into sprinter-type training,” he said, while the weight training done was more explosive work.”I would have to give 70-80% of the credit to the training we did. The rest was the minor change to my action which resulted in me bowling more like I did at high school.”Looking at the video analysis the fault in my timing was picked up and I worked on that. I found by improving my timing that when I got tired in South Africa I was still able to do it correctly.”It was another little thing that helped build my confidence,” he said.So well did his confidence grow that O’Connor finished the 2000 calendar year as New Zealand’s most successful bowler. He was 10th on the international standings with his 29 wickets in eight Tests coming at an average of 23.86.During the actual 2000/01 Test programme he finished with 18 wickets at 26.0.While he did enjoy the opportunities the injuries to others provided him with, O’Connor admitted that it was tough and he was shattered by the end of the Zimbabwe Test in Wellington, played soon after the team returned from South Africa.”I was knackered mentally and physically. It was a huge tour and while I watched the guys playing the one-day series against Zimbabwe in the New Year, I felt sorry for them.”I know we do get paid for doing it. But with professionalism gaining momentum I do think we have to get used to the idea that we might need some breaks or face the prospect of having shorter careers,” he said.New Zealand’s bowling problems surely bear that out. And the situation is right now for New Zealand to look to use more rotation of its bowlers.Hitting Pakistan and Australia with full-strength attacks will be important for New Zealand next summer, and then there is the prospect of dealing with England at home.”There’s a lot of cricket to go. If I don’t get an opportunity early on then I will have to sit tight and wait my opportunity later.”I would like to make the Aussie tour. I look back at the last one and can hardly remember a thing about it,” he said of what was his first big tour with the national side.In the mean-time there are other important matters to attend to. The paper he is doing through Massey University, the house he is doing up and most importantly of all, his August marriage, in Alexandra, to local girl Camille Grubb.Originally from Hawke’s Bay, O’Connor admits to being a Southern Man, although he said that title would have to be conferred by others. He does see his long-term future in the south saying he really enjoys the lifestyle offered by Central Otago.But with his knee feeling good and the competitive fires burning again, O’Connor is shaping as a key component in New Zealand’s Test attack this summer.

In taking on Australia at home over the next month, New Zealand’s cricketers wish to overturn one element of history while also paying homage to another.The Kiwis’ two most successful recent tilts at beating the men in baggy green took place in 2001 and 1995. In the more recent encounter, the batsmen dropped anchor and insisted on leaving the ball as much as possible. That approach worked so successfully that Glenn McGrath endured one of his poorest series of all, and the visitors came within a couple of wickets of snatching the series in Perth.Sixteen years before, a youthful Australian side gutted by retirements and South African rebel tour contracts had no answer to Sir Richard Hadlee at his peak. Moving the ball both ways while sticking to an immaculate line, a pair of thrashings in Brisbane and Perth fell either side of a narrower win for Allan Border’s bedraggled team in Sydney.This time around, New Zealand’s captain Brendon McCullum has no intention of instructing his batsmen to shelve their free-spirited batting tendencies in contrast to 2001. But there is well-founded confidence within the visitors’ ranks that a moving ball in the hands of Tim Southee, Trent Boult and company can confound another transitional Australian team after the fashion of Hadlee.For McCullum, the chance to play a three-Test series in Australia will sit high on any list of his career highlights, especially given how shabbily New Zealand have been treated by their wealthier neighbour in terms of fixtures since 2010. He is determined to maintain a positive, aggressive attitude to the task, something that cost him during the World Cup final earlier this year but has brought him great rewards elsewhere.”We’ve got to keep the positive mindset, that’s what works for us,” McCullum said. “It’s not always going to work but it gives us our greatest chance and we’ve said that time and time again over the last couple of years. That sits comfortably with us, it’s more authentic that style of play to the personnel in the unit and probably with us as people, as Kiwis. We’ll go and play some positive cricket and hopefully the gods will shine on us.”The World Cup was a great event and amazing to be part of, but we ran second in the event and we were proud of what we were able to achieve and how we gave ourselves a shot at the title. Unfortunately we weren’t good enough on the day and Australia deserved to win, but it’s not a motivation for us. Our motivation is to be as good as we possibly can, and to come over here and try and get the result which is to win the three-Test series.”The fact that both sides played England during the northern summer offers an intriguing insight into their strengths and weaknesses. New Zealand’s aggression got them into trouble at Lord’s but they rebounded strongly to win at Headingley, whereas Australia also finished the stronger but only after the Ashes had been whisked away by a combination of Steven Finn, Stuart Broad and heedless batting on a pair of seaming pitches.”To a degree, but I think Australia’s different at home,” McCullum said when queried on how much the Ashes result gave New Zealand an idea of how to make the hosts uncomfortable. “England in England are tough to beat and with a different ball as well. The series oscillated so much – England got the spoils at the end but it certainly wasn’t one sided.”For us we’ve got to play positive cricket, we know we’ve got a good line up, a team which we know well within ourselves, we’ve got good balance, and we’re going to have to work out some areas along the way where we think we might be able to attack Australia, and areas we have to shore up as well, because we know we’ve got some really explosive batters and they’ve got some dangerous bowlers as well.”That’s the art of trying to work out how you’re going to compete on a tour, but they’re going to be tough, and we’ve got to make sure we play well.”It should not escape the attention of those who have hesitated to schedule matches been Australia and New Zealand for reasons of competitiveness or financial value that the last time they played one another it was actually the Kiwis who were victorious, on a green Hobart pitch not dissimilar to those prepared in Birmingham and Nottingham.Tim Southee, who will lead in McCullum’s stead against the Prime Minister’s XI, said the swinging ball against aggressive Australian batsmen would be a prime weapon for the New Zealand attack. “I think the strength of myself and Trent particularly is the way we can swing a ball and it does help if it is swinging,” he said, “but I think we’ve also had results where it hasn’t swung.”We’ve performed in all sorts of conditions in all parts of the world now, and although we like it when it swings, we know if it is not swinging it is not the end of the world. We do have other plans and things up our sleeve as well. But if does make a bit of a difference if there is a bit of swing in the air and I think last time we played in Brisbane there was a little bit of swing around – James Pattinson swung it too nicely that day – so yeah hopefully we can get it swinging.”Talk of sledging and confrontations had to arise after the events of the World Cup final, but it is fair to surmise that this will be a series played in friendlier spirit based on recent evidence. Under McCullum, New Zealand have become a byword for fairness, while the Australians were notably short of verbal venom during the Ashes, even before the retirements of two chief provocateurs in Brad Haddin and Shane Watson.”I don’t know, time will tell. We’re certainly not spending any energy on that sort of stuff, I’m sure the series will be played in great spirit,” McCullum said. “Obviously with Steve Smith and with Darren Lehmann as coach, the two teams will get on well.”It will be healthy competition on the field and it should be played in good spirits, but for us the focus will be very much on our skills rather than anything else. We’ll just go and play our cricket and have a good time while we’re at it. We’ve got a great bunch of guys that we’re playing with and we’re out there representing our country, and that’s where our focus is rather than on the other stuff.”As for the experimental third Test, the first to be played under lights with a pink ball, McCullum acknowledged that not everyone involved had leapt into it with the greatest enthusiasm. However he summed up the position New Zealand were placed in by noting that it was highly unusual for them to be granted a three-Test series, so if the third had to be played with a pink ball then it was better than getting two.”The two boards were in discussions but from our point of view we arrived at the fact we were going to play a Test match with the pink ball,” he said. “We knew we were going to get some preparation, so from a players’ point of view we were going to allow ourselves to be able to get ready for the Test.”It is what it is, I know there’s been a bit of negativity around it, but I guess we’ll find out with the pink ball whether it works or not, and that’s one of the good things about playing the Test. We normally only get two-match series so it’s quite nice to have a third one, so we’ll deal with the third one when it arrives.”The pink ball’s debut will be a moment of history. But it is not only kind New Zealand want to be making this series.

Bermuda could be set to stage their first major international match, proving the ICC decides that pitches at the National Sports Centre have improved sufficiently since an inspection last year.The surface was condemned by Andy Atkinson, the ICC’s inspector, in July 2007. “The square at the Sports Centre is good enough for club cricket, but when you’re talking about ODIs or longer games then I’m afraid it’s a no-go,” he said, adding that bringing in soil from abroad was the only way to rectify the situation. That idea was subsequently slammed by the Bermudan government as it contravened the island’s strict laws on the importation of soil.But Cricket Scotland said that it had been contacted by the Bermudan board (BCB) who are confident that ICC approval could come in time for the Intercontinental Cup tie to be played there in mid July. “The process for approving the National Stadium in Bermuda for ICC Intercontinental Cup matches is in place and we hope that a decision will be made towards the end of this week or early next week whether Bermuda will host Scotland in early July,” a spokesman for the ICC told Cricinfo.At the moment, the four-day game is scheduled to be played in Toronto where Scotland will then meet Canada three days later. But of clear concern to Scotland is that if the match is switched to Bermuda then it will present logistical issues in rearranging the initial flights and then transferring on to Canada with little time to acclimatise.”The Bermudians are keeping us in the loop about their plans,” Roddy Smith, the board’s chief executive, said. “The ICC requested them to prepare a four-day wicket for tests and they’ve been playing practise matches on the ground for each of the last three weekends. The tests end this weekend and we understand the ICC will make a decision on the venue for our game during the week. I’d say it’s looking likely that we’ll be told to play in Bermuda.”Obviously there will be a bit more hassle with travel but I’d imagine there are worse places to go than Bermuda.”

Europe will come to Lord’s on 7 June, when MCC will entertain a European XI for the first time. Trent Johnston, Ireland’s captain, will lead Europe, taking over from Scotland’s Ryan Watson – and he will link up again with the former Ireland coach Adrien Birrell who stepped down after the World Cup.The match will be a return fixture after last year’s successful experiment in Rotterdam, a five-wicket win for MCC. Admission is free.Although most county-contracted players will again be unavailable, Europe’s side includes four of Ireland’s World Cup players. There are five Scotland players in the team, and one each from Denmark and The Netherlands.The batting again looks strong, with openers Jeremy Bray (Ireland), Bas Zuiderent (Netherlands) and Freddie Klokker (Denmark) backed up by Watson and Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien. Bray’s century against Zimbabwe in Ireland’s opening World Cup game got their tournament off to a great start, and he was again in fine form against Canada, with 146 from just 152 balls.With Wright, Colin Smith and Johnston in the middle order the side bats in depth. Johnston has a choice of keepers, too, in Smith and Klokker.Johnston himself will take the new ball, with John Blain, whose 3 for 24 was key in Scotland’s Friends Provident Trophy win against Lancashire last week. Seamers Wright and O’Brien provide support, with spin from Ireland’s off-spinner Kyle McCallan and Scotland’s slow left-armer Glenn Rogers.Twelfth man will be Guernsey’s Kris Moherndl, who has been given the opportunity as part of a new initiative this year to offer the experience to one of Europe’s rising talents that impressed the selectors during the recent ICC European Cricket Academy in La Manga, Spain.Squad Trent Johnston (Ireland, captain), John Blain (Scotland), Jeremy Bray (Ireland), Freddie Klokker (Denmark), Kyle McCallan, Kevin O’Brien (both Ireland), Glenn Rogers, Colin Smith, Ryan Watson, Craig Wright (all Scotland), Bas Zuiderent (Netherlands).
12th man – Kris Moherndl (Guernsey).

Amit Varma and S Rajesh discuss the first day of the Antigua TestDownload MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMAIndia vindicated their decision of playing six specialist batsmen by batting badly, falling to 235 for 9 on the first day of the Antigua Test. Amit Varma and S Rajesh, who wrote the bulletin for this game, discuss what went wrong for India and what went right for West Indies. Strategy, tactics, tennis: they’re all discussed here. Listen in!Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMAFor Sambit Bal’s views on the Indian team’s selection, click here.

South Africa’s one-day allrounder, Justin Kemp, has been appointed as captain of the Nashua Titans franchise for the 2005-06 season.Kemp, who made a successful return to international cricket against England in January and February, enjoyed a brilliant domestic season in 2004-05, especially in the PRO20 Series in which he averages 82.50 at a strike-rate of 189.65, including 13 sixes.During the Standard Bank Cup, Kemp averaged 56.50 at a strike-rate of 77.13, and received the Mutual and Federal Award for the Standard Bank Cup player of the year. Often branded a one-day specialist, Kemp also averaged 57.77 in first-class cricket.Kemp’s sublime form has resuscitated his international career and he performed superbly with the bat in one-day internationals for South Africa against England, Zimbabwe and West Indies this season. He has already, at this early stage of the year passed Lance Klusener’s record of 23 sixes scored in a calendar year, which Klusener accomplished in 1999.”It was not only Kemp’s fine performances which had elevated him to the status of Captain of the Titans, however” said Brandon Foot, the chairman of the board. “Kemp has developed over the past two seasons into a highly competitive cricketer, who has matured remarkably and emerged as a natural leader within the Titans.”Of significance, is that each and every Titans squad member was asked to cast a vote for the Titans captain, and Justin has emerged as having overwhelming support.”Kemp is currently honing his skills with Kent Country Cricket Club under the watchful guidance of the former South African national coach, Graham Ford, in the company of Martin Van Jaarsveld and Andrew Hall.”Justin will be returning from Kent early, by prior arrangement with Kent Country Cricket Club”, said Foot. “We are comfortable that he is in most capable hands under Graham Ford.”Kemp expressed his pleasure at his appointment. “It is a great honour to be made captain of such a talented team. This is a job that I wanted badly and I am very pleased to have been given such an opportunity. It will be difficult to follow in the significant footsteps of my predecessor Daryll Cullinan and I would like to thank Daryll for all that he has done for both myself and the Titans. I am also grateful to my team-mates for having supported my appointment.”Foot added: “The Board is aware that Kemp could well not be available for the Titans when he is called up for, in particular one-day international duty by South Africa. We are, however indeed fortunate to have a number of Titans who have both experience and potential as leaders. Should Justin be called upon for national duty, we will have able replacements for him and this will also ensure pro-active succession planning for the Titans captaincy into the future.”

India may have had the better of the exchanges in the first Test, but Matthew Hayden showed just what might be in store for the Indians in the remaining Tests. His 99 was remarkable for the utter disdain with which he treated even the good balls. Of the 98 balls he faced, 51 of them pitched on a good length, which were dispatched for 52 runs. When the Indians pitched slightly short, though, Hayden was far less destructive: 30 balls just short of a length fetched just 12 runs.

Ajit Agarkar was the only bowler who managed to curb the Hayden charge. As the table below shows, against the rest of the bowlers, Hayden scored at more than a run a ball.

Meanwhile, two wickets in the Indian second innings might have saved Nathan Bracken from being dropped for the second Test. One of those wickets was, inevitably, Virender Sehwag’s, whom Bracken has now dismissed five times in the last five innings, stretching back to the first match of the TVS Cup tournament in India. Sehwag did manage 17 runs off Bracken in the first innings, but most of those were after he was dropped in the slips off Bracken early in the piece.

Somerset fans could be in for a year to remember in 2003 if the New Year wishes made by their captain Mike Burns come true.The thirty three year old all rounder, who was the only Somerset player to reach 1000 runs in championship matches last season told me: "We want to get back to winning ways in 2003 and get promotion. We must learn from our mistakes last year and come back fighting like wounded animals this season."He continued: "Our new signings will make a considerable impact and create fierce competition for places in the side. Having Aaron Laraman, who is a genuine strike bowler, as a fourth seamer will make a big difference and will mean that I have to bowl less overs, and with Nixon McLean in the side we will certainly be able to bowl sides out."What did he hope for himself I asked. He told me: "I seem to be getting better with every season, so I hope to score more runs this coming season. As captain I want to be in charge of a happy winning side who play to their potential and play with pride in 2003."Looking forward to the new year Somerset head coach Kevin Shine told me: "We have to draw a line under last season and look forward to 2003. We have acted upon what we feel were our weaknesses and made three very good signings."He continued: " We know that we have to get back up to the top flights and we are all geared up and ready to go. It’s a crime that with the talent that we have got we are playing in the second division."Chief executive Peter Anderson told me: "My wish is that the club is like the proverbial phoenix in 2003 and rises from the ashes, rekindling the spirit and the enthusiasm of members and supporters and feed that as an inspiration to the players to deliver exciting cricket for us all to watch."The Somerset boss concluded: "Win or lose we need to play with passion, enthusiasm and chivalry because teams that adopt those qualities invariably win."