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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Ricky Ponting’s Australia emulated Steve Waugh’s run of 16 consecutive Test wins as they took a 2-0 lead in the series against India in a thriller of a game that went right down to the wire at the SCG. With only six minutes to spare as the shadows lengthened Michael Clarke picked up the last three wickets from only five balls as Australia sneaked home. India will be gutted, not merely because they had resisted stoutly but because once again they were at the receiving end of some umpiring decisions that will be talked about for some time to come.At the end of a very long day it seemed as though India had hung in there for the draw that left the series open heading into Perth when Clarke was thrown the ball in the 69th over of the day. Anil Kumble, who had resisted admirably, negotiated it with little trouble. But it was the next Clarke over that knocked the last nails into India’s coffin.Off the first ball, a brute that reared and took the outside edge to be smartly caught by Michael Hussey, Harbhajan Singh was dismissed. RP Singh planted his foot down the pitch to the next one but only interrupted the ball’s onward journey to the stumps and was lbw for a first-ball duck. Ishant Sharma negotiated the hat-trick ball, another straight one, and dabbed the next to the on side but the fifth ball did for him. Tossed up and outside the off, the ball gripped the surface and went via outside edge straight to slip, and Australia had the result they wanted.The knock of the innings came from Kumble, and you had to feel for him when he was left stranded on 45 off 111 balls as the last wicket fell. Kumble was a picture of concentration and determination, and if there was any anger at the decisions that went against India it was channelled into a batting effort that would have done many top-order batsmen proud. Although more comfortable playing off the back foot Kumble ensured that he came forward to the spinners when he could, taking the lbw out of play as much as possible.At the end of the day Australia won a dramatic Test but it was not entirely without some help from the umpires. When you pick up a pack of Benson & Hedges you get a statutory warning: “Smoking cigarettes is injurious to health.” From this day on, the firm of Benson & Bucknor may well have to come with some sort of warning. It’s a shame when you have to spend more time talking about the umpiring than the wickets taken or the runs scored, but when the errors umpires make play a big role in deciding the course of a game, there’s little choice.The first bad decision of the final day went against Rahul Dravid, who was a key component in India’s stonewalling after Australia had set them 333 from a possible 72 overs and shut them out of the game. Dravid’s dour approach at the top of the order has raised a good many eyebrows and elicited ironic jeers and cheers from Australian crowds, but it was just what India needed.Dravid was positive in his judgment of what to play and what to leave, confident in defence and when the occasion presented itself, willing to drive safely. He had consumed 103 balls for his 38 when he tucked his bat completely behind pad with all the safety of a Swiss banker and padded Andrew Symonds away. Even with no part of blade visible, Steve Bucknor upheld a spirited appeal for the catch behind when the ball had come off the knee roll. Dravid has copped his fair share of debatable decisions as he has tried to bat his way out a lean patch, but this one took the cake, and he shook his head in disbelief all the way back to the dressing room.When Dravid fell, India were 4 for 115 and precariously poised. Already Wasim Jaffer had gone for a duck, edging Brett Lee to Adam Gilchrist, VVS Laxman had been trapped plumb in front by a clever bit of bowling from Stuart Clark and Sachin Tendulkar had dragged one back onto his stumps.Sourav Ganguly batted as though he was under no pressure, bringing a refreshing confidence and positive mindset to the middle. Just as Dravid’s defensive approach was best for him, Ganguly had found a way to launch his own resistance and it was certainly more pretty to watch. Planting his foot well down the ground and driving superbly through the off side, Ganguly was scoring at a run-a-ball when none of the Indian batsmen before him had come close to doing so.

Andrew Symonds was the one to suffer the most against Ganguly, being taken for three consecutive boundaries through cover in one over, as well as having him dropped at slip off his bowling. The fast men did not trouble Ganguly much either, that is until the ball that terminated his innings. Having raced to a half-century Ganguly slashed one to Clarke in the slips cordon. Clarke went low to take the catch and it was not clear if he had got his fingers under the ball, but that should have proved to be irrelevant as he subsequently grounded the ball, tumbling to his left in the process of completing the catch. Mark Benson, called upon to rule on this one, chose not to ask his partner at square-leg, or go to the third umpire, and instead was satisfied by a word from Ricky Ponting, also stationed at slip. Only a few minutes before this Ponting had claimed a bat-pad catch after clearly grounding the ball in the process. Why Benson chose to take Ponting’s word for it, after all that had happened, is something only he knows the answer to. Either way it was time for Ganguly to go, on a well-made 51 and India were 6 for 137.Then a fresh rearguard began, with two new protagonists in Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kumble. Dhoni has not been a force with the bat in the Tests so far and it was not his brute force but his mental strength that was called upon. Dhoni left his big shots back in the pavilion and defended stoically, albeit in somewhat unorthodox fashion. He was fidgety outside the off stump but ensured he did not nick the ball.The Dhoni-Kumble stand had pushed on to 48, and more importantly eaten up precious time – 21 overs to be exact – before an error of judgment from Dhoni, when he padded up to an offbreak from Symonds and was plumb in front, separated the two. Then came the Clarke special that sealed the deal. He’d endured a poor match with the bat, picking up more wickets than scoring runs, but playing such a big part in the win, he’ll take it.And Clarke’s wickets could not have been more timely. When Ponting prolonged the Australian second innings till they reached 401, thanks mainly to an unbeaten 145 from Hussey, there was just the thought that he hadn’t the time to bowl out the Indians. At the end of the day, 72 overs proved to be enough, albeit by the thinnest of slivers.

Leicestershire have defended their use of Kolpak players and insist they won’t mean that young English cricketers will be kept out of the first team.There have been plenty of arrivals at Grace Road during the off season with South African quicks Garnett Kruger and Dillion du Preez along with Jermaine Lawson, the West Indies fast bowler, joining on Kolpak deals. They join HD Ackerman and Claude Henderson, while the official overseas player is Boeta Dippenaar.However, chief executive David Smith told the that the club’s aim is to push forward young talent. “Our medium-term plan is to develop Leicestershire and Rutland-born cricketers,” he said. “This will help us engage the local business community as the team will reflect the multi-cultural diversity of our city. This is vital if we are to underpin the financial stability of the club over the coming years.”He says that the Kolpak route isn’t one that the county takes lightly, but draws on the example of Durham to prove how it can be successful.”Kolpak cricketers are not popular but we have used the Durham blueprint for success in an effort to develop our team in the mid-term and hopefully provide England with some international cricketers.”However, Durham have produced a number of England players in the last five years – Paul Collingwood, Steve Harmison, Liam Plunkett and Phil Mustard – while Leicestershire’s only major success story is Stuart Broad who has now moved to Nottinghamshire.

It looked like being one of those sleepy subcontinental Tests, where the side batting first runs up a big score and the other team tries to match their total.And the first two days on a docile pitch at Colombo’s R Premadasa (formerly Khetterama) Stadium followed that template. India made 537 for 8, with centuries from Sidhu (his eighth in Tests), Tendulkar (12th) and Azharuddin (18th). India declared shortly before the end of the second day, and Tendulkar promised his bowlers would “attack for three days”. They claimed a wicket in the last over. It went to Nilesh Kulkarni, 24, a left-arm spinner from Bombay, who became only the 12th bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in Tests. But his dream start was to turn into a nightmare: he sent down 419 more balls without taking another wicket, and conceded 195 runs.Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama, team-mates with Colombo’s Bloomfield club, batted throughout the third day (the 12th instance in Testhistory) and on through the fourth. No pair had survived two full days’ play before, although Garry Sobers and Frank Worrell almost managed it against England at Bridgetown in 1959-60: they also batted through two days, but an hour was lost to rain on the second of them.Jayasuriya had reached 326, Sri Lanka’s first Test triple-century, by the fourth-day close. He was within sight of Brian Lara’s Test-record 375, and in anticipation of a new mark the gates were thrown open on the final day. Over 30,000 crowded in, but many were still trying to find a perch when Jayasuriya, two balls after losing his partner for 225, was surprised by one that bounced from offspinner Chauhan and popped a simple catch to Ganguly at silly point. The Indian fielders all ran to congratulate the batsman, and clapped him off the field. Jayasuriya had made 340, from 578 balls in 799 minutes, with 36 fours and two sixes. He banished once and for all any notion that he is only a one-day hitter. Only three higher scores have been made in Tests – Lara’s 375, Garry Sobers’s 365 not out, and Len Hutton’s 364.Jayasuriya’s first task had been to ensure that Sri Lanka avoided the follow-on. “I was happy to go all that way,” he said. “I wasn’t going after the record – at least not until the end of the fourth day, when someone told me I was only 50 short. I felt a great pressure on me when I came out to bat [on the fifth morning], and obviously I am disappointed now – but at least my country has made a great achievement.”His partnership with Mahanama, who scored his first Test double-century, set several more records. They eventually put on 576 in 753 minutes, the longest stand in Test history and only one run shy of the highest in first-class cricket (577 by Vijay Hazare and Gul Mahomed in India in 1946-47). They cruised past the previous-highest Test partnership, the 467 of Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones at Wellington in 1990-91. This record was taken with some relish, as the suffering bowlers on that occasion were Sri Lanka’s.The record breaking did not stop when the epic partnership was ended. Aravinda de Silva showed little sign that he had been padded up for the best part of 13 hours, compiling a neat 12th Test century of his own, while skipper Ranatunga made 86, becoming the first Sri Lankan to pass 4000 Test runs during his innings. Mahela Jayawardene, 19, also chipped in on his debut.England’s 903 for 7 at The Oval in 1938, the highest Test total, was the next big target: eventually that too was surpassed. A score of 1000 seemed a possibility, but as there was no chance of a result a halt was called with seven of the last 20 overs bowled. Sri Lanka’s 952 for 6 is the third-highest total in all first-class cricket, exceeded only by Victoria’s two four-figure totals in Australia in the 1920s.Ona dead pitch India stuck well enough to their task, at least on the third and fourth days. Not surprisingly, the bowlers and fielders wilted on the final day as Sri Lanka piled on the runs with all prospect of a result long gone. Opening bowler Kuruvilla, who picked up a leg injury, was spared much of the punishment, but Chauhan, on his return to Test cricket after doubts about his bowling action, and Kumble both conceded over 200 runs.Tendulkar said the pitch was “unfit for Test cricket”, adding: “If we had lost the toss and batted second, we could also have played a massive innings. We only lost wickets because we took chances and looked for runs.”

Hampshire Cricket will break with tradition once again this summer – by wearing football-style shirts in the Frizzell County Championship.Chairman Rod Bransgrove has already succeeded in turning Hampshire County Cricket Club into Hampshire Cricket, the cricketing arm of the county circuit’s first public limited company.And last month a public offering of shares was made in Rose Bowl plc with Bransgrove and chief executive Graham Walker hopeful of raising £5 million.But the decision to wear named and numbered shirts in the four-day game is not unprecedented.Lancashire had them on the back of special fleece shirts last year and pioneered the idea with safety pins more than 50 years ago.Now Robin Smith’s men will follow suit, although traditionalists will be pleased to know that the woollen jumpers will remain the same as the names would become unreadable once put through the wash!Chairman Rod Bransgrove first unveiled the plan at the AGM two months ago but Hampshire Cricket have now been given the go-ahead by the ECB and the players will wear the shirts for the first time when they begin the season at Kent in 13 days’ time.Director of cricket Tim Tremlett said: “Lancashire used numbered shirts in the championship last year where it went down particularly well with members and players.”I gather they are used a lot in South Africa as well and they have obviously been a success in the one day game.”Players are quite hard to distinguish from the stands and batsmen can be particularly hard to make out when they are wearing helmets so this should be a great help to spectators.”It also means that the players will have no excuse for picking up the wrong shirt in the dressing room!”

To sit in the ‘Space Ship’ that is the press box at Lord’s, and watch Zaheer Khan lead the Indian bowling reminds you of just how much things are changing in the world of cricket. Gone are the days when most people thronged to the Marylebone Cricket Club in suits and ties, when the fax machines whirred noisily and refreshingly, when touring Indian sides were dependent purely on their spinners to do the job. Despite Javagal Srinath’s early retirement from Tests, the Indian pace attack finally looks as it should – as an attack, rather than a set of reluctant trundlers.Ajit Agarkar, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan sat out the warm-up match against Hampshire just before the start of the Test series. Quite a few eyebrows were raised. How can the pacemen go straight into a Test series without serious match practice? Well, John Wright was categorical in saying that they needed rest, and that they were prepared well enough with practice sessions that simulated real match conditions. The NatWest series showed that this was not quite true.Beginning in conditions that aided movement in the air, both Nehra and Zaheer Khan sprayed the ball all over the place. A touch of nervousness? Striving too hard to make the best of conditions? Whatever the problem, it was left well behind as the Indians got down to the serious business of Test cricket at Lord’s.Zaheer Khan was always going to be the man to watch out for, with his strength and ability to get the ball to hold its line. Running in vigorously and building up to a crescendo as he takes a small leap before delivery stride and brings the left arm through with a quick action, Zaheer Khan certainly does not hold anything back. And it’s this more than anything else that brought him 15 wickets in the Tests in West Indies and 14 in the NatWest series.Unlike Zaheer Khan, Nehra is the sort of bowler to whom rhythm means everything. Not hitting the deck as hard as his counterpart, Nehra relies more on movement in the air. When she swings, and swings late, Nehra really becomes a handful. But as the best pacemen in the history of the game have said, the art of swing bowling is less understood than people would like. Countless columns have been written on the factors that make that five and a half ounces of leather swerve in the air as it careens down a 22-yard strip.The condition of the ball, the moisture in the air, the direction of the breeze, the bowler’s action, the wrist position at release, are just a few things that the experts will tell you about. But there are days, like today at Lord’s, when things just don’t go according to script for you. Nehra’s no-ball trouble and a lack of control gave the home side breathing space.Not so Zaheer Khan. Trapping Michael Vaughan in front of the stumps before England could get a run on the board, the lad bowled a spell of sustained hostility, recording figures of 6-4-5-1 in his first dig. Keeping the ball well up to the bat, Zaheer Khan kept the batsmen honest. Anil Kumble, doing a fine job coming in to the attack in the 19th over, had Butcher caught close to the bat. Then came Zaheer Khan’s next swoop. Playing inside the line of the ball, Graham Thorpe lost his off stump in the 30th over. At 78/3, England were in a position they would not have anticipated, having won the toss and elected to bat.But then, that’s the beauty of it. While there’s a script in the back of the mind, it’s seldom followed out in the middle. The cast in the drama this English summer has an unusual compostion. With the hype of ‘Bombay Dreams’ sweeping London, it’s ironic that the sobriquet coiners will not have the opportunity to wax eloquent about the magicians from the East, the tweakers, the Turbanator and what have you.Instead, it’s back to straight up and down, wicket to wicket medium pace that India will fire at England. Sure, this Lord’s wicket looks like it will take spin more than some others have in the past, and Harbhajan Singh might have been a shade more useful than the expensive Agarkar, but the writing is on the wall. Ganguly means business and he believes that his pacemen can do the job for him.With hindsight, he might wish that he had the services of Harbhajan. If proof of that was needed, it came when Virender Sehwag was brought on to bowl his offies, even as India’s third seamer bowled just 11 overs out of 90 for 49 runs. Agarkar has had a forgettable day, and he’d better pull up his socks for Ganguly to have the freedom to implement his pace plan effectively.

MCC raised over £1,250 for Save the Children during yesterday’s ‘Evening of Carols’ in the Long Room at Lord’s.The carol evening built on the success of last year’s inaugural event, which raised £830 for the same children’s charity.MCC’s guests – including the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Cllr Frances Blois – were welcomed to Lord’s by the Club’s President, Sir Tim Rice. A total of around 200 people (including local residents, MCC Members and their families) then joined in the carol-singing, which was led by The London Chorus.Commenting on the event, Save the Children’s Jo Davies said:

“We’re delighted by the success of the ‘Evening of Carols’ at Lord’s.The Long Room is a wonderful venue for a carol concert, and we’re grateful to MCC for organising an excellent evening on our behalf.We’d also like to thank all the guests for being so generous with their donations, which enabled us to raise a magnificent amount for Save the Children and its work.”

Cricket is a game of inches and it was by no more than an inch that Paul Nixon was run out in the last over when ten runs were needed by Kent Spitfires and Glamorgan Dragons became the 2002 Norwich Union League champions, winning by just 4 runs. It had been a match of see-saw emotions for the Welshmen, for it did not look as if they had scored enough when they batted, first Mark Ealham and then Nixon appeared to be taking the Spitfires home, news came that only rivals for the title Worcestershire Royals had won but, from the last ball, the Dragons took the match and the title.Winning the toss and batting first, the Dragons were pegged back early on by accuracy of the Spitfires’ attack, especially Martin Saggers who bowled an excellent stint of nine overs taking one for 27. That wicket was Ian Thomas who was well caught at mid-off by Steve Waugh making a lot of ground to his left and then diving to complete the catch.Ben Trott had earlier accounted for Robert Croft who played on, but Trott became too expensive as Matthew Maynard and Michael Powell began to warm to their task. Three fours by Maynard in one over, including two elegant straight drives, saw Trott withdrawn from the attack as Mark Ealham and Matthew Fleming tried to restore order.It was Ealham who bowled Maynard for 33, Fleming accounted for David Hemp when he had 37, but it was off-spinner James Tredwell who brought Powell’s innings to an end, but not before he had scored 74 from 83 balls with eight fours and a six. Tredwell also snapped up Mark Wallace with the help of a stumping from Nixon and the Dragons had plenty of work to do in the field.They started well enough with Matthew Fleming, making his farewell appearance on the ground, was out with the score just four. Robert Key was looking for the short boundary when he was out caught, and then the prize wicket – an absolute beauty from Andrew Davies to knock over Steve Waugh’s wicket.At 62 for three, the Spitfires were in a tailspin, but Matthew Walker and Ealham pulled them out of the dive. It took a clever piece of bowling from Croft, delivering the ball from some 23 yards, to deceive Walker after the pair had added 74 for the fourth wicket. Walker out stumped for 26, and it was a similar delivery that induced Ealham to chip a simple catch to Maynard at short mid-wicket to tilt the balance back towards the Dragons. Ealham had made 75 with five fours and three sixes and while he had been there, the Spitfires were favourites.Nixon took up the mantle with a succession of partners as wickets fell but the target came ever closer. Alex Loudon got a short ball from Davies that he must have believed was destined for his second six until Thomas intervened to take the catch. Saggers intended a six from the first ball he faced but it went straight up in the air.So to the last over. Mike Kasprowicz to bowl and Nixon on strike. First ball went to third man. They ran one. It was vital to keep Nixon on strike so he backed himself against Adrian Dale’s arm. The throw was not quite on the money, but Wallace collected well and lunged for the wicket, breaking it with Nixon’s dive leaving him that crucial inch short as the bails came off and, with only ten and jack to continue the fight, Welsh celebrations began a week before the end of the season.

Since his comeback from the wilderness, Shoaib Akhtar has not just been a mega star – he’s been a match-winner too. Throughout the 2002-03 season time after time, he held a match by the scruff of its neck, and turned it around with a bunch of wickets. If his precision-guided thunderbolts were not shattering stumps, they were crushing toes.More recently, the pulverised Aussies have a new-found respect for Shoaib. Somewhat humbled, an unusual way to refer to the World Champions, we heard skipper Ricky Ponting talking of him in terms of a ‘serious threat’. Ponting said: ‘When you’re bowling 150 kilometres an hour and swinging the ball you’re always going to be hard to play. But we’ve got to find a way to combat that when the World Cup comes around’.Ponting has reason to be concerned. He too was scalped with a fast, inswinging delivery recorded at 151.1 kilometres, followed by Darren Lehmann at 150.3 and Michael Bevan at 152.3 in three back-to-back overs of sustained pace by Shoaib that left Australia tottering at 83 for six. The Aussies never recovered from Shoaib’s pounding. But will Ponting, with the help of coach John Buchanan, be able to find ways to tackle such scorching pace in the months leading up to the World Cup?It’s anyone’s guess, but the Aussie distaste for pace may now out in the open. Before Shoaib, Shane Bond and Makhaya Ntini had earlier this year exposed this particular chink in the armour; they were rewarded with the Aussie ouster in the tri-nation finals, which perhaps may have contributed to Steve Waugh’s sacking from captaincy of the one-day side. Yet between then and now, the Aussies could do precious little to counter Shoaib, or they would not have looked, and later sounded as concerned as they did after the Super Challenge series.The fact is that there never has been an answer to red-hot pace. That is why nobody, even that breed of batsmen deemed comfortable against fast bowling, truly likes super fast stuff.Anyway, for batsmen, there is further bad news from Pakistan. One has learnt on good authority, as good as the PCB Chairman, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, that Pakistan is to soon to reintroduce another pace merchant, Mohammad Zahid. One hears that Zahid has not just fully recovered from his many injuries that forced him out of international cricket for the last half of a decade; he is now busy playing for a league in Ireland.Zahid’s pace and fitness, informs Dr Tauseef Razzaq, the head of the PCB appointed doctor’s panel which is the final authority for clearing the physical state of every player vying for a spot in the national squad – are now almost as good as at his best.And at his peak, Zahid was quite a demon. In the 1997 version of the World Series Cup Down Under, he was acknowledged as the fastest in the world. In one over to Brian Lara, Zahid didn’t just get the prized wicket off the last delivery, in the bargain he had Lara jumping and fending, beating him with pace and movement in the previous five balls!Having trained him back to full fitness, Dr Tauseef vouches about Zahid’s pace. “He is quite fast, and can bowl long spells at the same pace; he could bowl as fast as Shoaib”, says Dr Tauseef. One has to believe Dr Tauseef, for it was he who nursed back Shoaib from a spate of injuries, and having done that gave him a clean bill of health. Few believed in him then, but since Shoaib has silenced all doubters through an extended season, taking Dr Tauseef’s word seriously sounds like a good idea.So with Zahid back in contention, the Pakistani pace artillery looks awesome. In Shoaib, Zahid, Sami, Razzaq, Akram and Waqar (in order of pace), they now just don’t have a quartet, they’ve a sextuplet. This really is embarrassment of riches, if ever there was one. Despite Akram and Waqar being in advanced stages of their careers, this is a pretty potent pace attack – one which could rival the various foursomes that the Caribbeans unleashed on the world between the early ’80s and early ’90s.The PCB, more specifically its chairman, is now being acknowledged to have done a good turn to the Pakistan team and to Shoaib, by not leaving him in the lurch when he was in utter bad shape physically, wayward mentally and hounded by the ‘chucking allegations’. Though this scribe was one among those who criticised him for frittering away millions on the temperamental speedster’s recovery, one now has to concede that it was money well spent. Shoaib has not just tore into batting line-ups, he has silenced his own, and his benefactor’s critics.

The world’s newest international cricket venue, the 141st tostage one-day cricket, will be unveiled on Monday in a mostunlikely location, at Tangiers in French-speaking northernAfrica.South Africa will take on Pakistan in the first match of theMorocco Cup 2002, a triangular tournament also involving SriLanka that marks the latest chapter in the growth of a remarkablecricketing empire.Its all part of an ambitious Dubai-based construction tycoon’sdream – part commercial, part utilitarian – to globalise the gameof cricket, especially throughout the Arab world.Abdur Rahmann Bukhatir’s involvement with cricket started in the1970’s in the desert city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, whenhe created the Cricketer’s Benefit Fund Series (CBFS), afundraising vehicle for retired, underpaid Asian cricketers ofyesteryear.But the CBFS mushroomed into far more than a cricketers’ pensionscheme. Sharjah held its first official One-Day International in1981 and by the 1990’s the CBFS tri-series had developed into aregular biannual event, feeding Asia’s apparently insatiableappetite for limited overs cricket.And as the value of television rights soared throughout the1990’s, Sharjah became a financial honeypot, offering Asiancricket boards a valuable revenue stream and the playersastronomical prize money.But the new millennium brought fresh challenges, as the CBFS wasfaced was confronted by a grave image crisis, as Sharjah becameembroiled in the match fixing scandal that rocked internationalcricket.For years the plethora of matches played at Sharjah (no othervenue has staged more ODIs) had attracted suspicions thatbookmakers had successfully fixed matches.Amidst allegations that the tournament was fixed in favour ofPakistan, the Indian government stopped their team from visitingSharjah for three years.With England and Australia also wary of playing there, the CBFS’sfuture appeared to be in jeopardy, as the value of its televisionrights plummeted.Ironically, the crisis only served to broaden Buhatir’s horizons,as the CBFS moved into television production, setting up TajTelevision and launching a dedicated sports channel called TENSports, a development that paved the way for the new”made-for-television” stadium in Tangiers.Morocco will now provide TEN Sports with the compelling cricketcontent that it needs to compete with the more established sportschannels such as Star Sports and ESPN that dominate the Asiantelevision market.And despite its francophone heritage, the location has twodistinct attractions: a perfect Mediterranean climate thatprovides for a long season during the southern hemisphere winterand a nearby Asian population in Europe that Bukhatir’s hopeswill embrace the venture.”Morocco is very close to Europe and it will be very easy forIndians and Pakistanis living in Spain and Portugal to come andwatch matches,” said Bukhatir.But although CBFS’s involvement is primarily a commercialventure, Bukhatir is a fanatical cricket fan, possessing agenuine philanthropists desire to develop the game, a fact borneout by the scope and scale of his financial investment.They have already pumped close to USD 15 million into Morocco,building two stadiums in Tangiers and Rabat, as well as employingthree full-time coaches, including former Indian all-rounderMohinder Amaranath, to work with local cricketers.The infrastructure and coaches will help the Federation RoyaleMarocaine de Cricket (FRMC) – which Bukhatir helped set-up andacquire Affiliate Status of the International Cricket Council -to foster the game.Currently there are just 280 regular cricketers and eight teamsin Morocco competing in a 30-over league, but Amaranath believesthat the FRMC can generate much greater interest in the game.”Cricket in Morocco is like a new language,” he said. “When westarted two years ago no-one knew about the game, but they nowbetter. The game will grow in the future as people become moreaware.”Perhaps the CBFS is unlikely to convert large numbers ofMorocco’s football loving, cafe lounging public to cricket, butthey are certainly trying to capture local interest in Tangiers,offering free entry into the stadium and the chance to winvaluable prizes to those who turn up to watch the games.And the spectators are not the only ones offered incentiveseither, as the CBFS has put up an astonishing USD 250,000 pot ofprize money for the teams, ensuring that the triangulartournament will be taken very seriously indeed.At the moment the 5000-seater Tangiers Cricket Stadium is in astate of frantic half-completion. With 24 hours to go till thecurtain rises bulldozers are still landscaping, walls are stillbeing painted and terracotta tiles are still being hammered ontothe roof.Situated adjacent to the verdant lawns of the Royal Golf Club,looking out on to the hills surrounding Tangiers that are dottedwith plush white villas, the venue will be spectacular whenfinished.The interior is closer to completion and very impressive, withexcellent state-of-the-art facilities for the players, officials,media and the entourage of VIPs who are being invited to theinaugural tournament.ICC match referee, Mike Procter, who inspected the venue’sfacilities, was fulsome in his support: “The stadium is ideal forinternational cricket and I have no hesitation in recommendingits approval.”Crucially, the cricket facilities are finished. There are sevenpractice nets all in working order, the outfield is striped inlush, green grass and the pitch boosts a gleaming white colour,similar in look to the high scoring surfaces common at Sharjah.The exact nature of the pitch though is a point of conjecture.The two club standard matches played on it in June suggested thatit would suit the spinners, but local observers have suggestedthat it has now hardened up, potentially offering the fastbowlers some pace and bounce.That will be welcomed by the likes of hard-hitting strokeplayerssuch as Sanath Jayasuriya, Lance Klusener and Shahid Afridi, whowill already be relishing the challenge of clearing therelatively short boundaries.Certainly the CBFS will be hoping that the new venue starts witha bang. An exciting, high scoring tournament will go a long wayto justifying the whole ambitious project.But perhaps the most crucial factor that will determine whetherthe CBFS’s risky decision to delve into television is successfulor not will be whether they can lure India over to play in thenear future.To that end the CBFS is desperate for Morocco’s reputation to besqueaky clean, welcoming the advice of the ICC’s Anti CorruptionUnit enthusiastically and taking the issue of security seriously.Some measures are mere window dressing, such as the signboardnailed to the main entrance that announces in bold red writingthat, “BETTING AND GAMBLING ON CRICKET IS ILLEGAL AND STRICTLYPROHIBITED.”But the widespread use of video surveillance outside the dressingrooms and in the team hotels, as well as the now standard mobilephone ban, will make it harder for determined bookmakers tocommunicate with corrupt players.And should the Tangiers Cricket Stadium be successful infostering a clean image, there is even the possibility ofbecoming a neutral Test venue, as security fears continue todisrupt cricket in Pakistan and Zimbabwe.However, talk of Test cricket here is premature, first the localshave to be persuaded to embrace the game, a task that starts inearnest this week.

The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka will shortly launch a project to modernize and develop the Galle International Cricket Stadium, to fulfill a long-felt need to bring this Test venue’s facilities up to international standards.The project, which is expected to cost between 40 and 50 million rupees, includes a new grandstand with modern facilities, including seating for 250 spectators, a media box with a capacity for 140 media persons, dressing rooms for teams, separate catering areas, air-conditioned VIP areas, and boxes for the 3rd Umpire and Match Referee.The new grandstand will be built in the area that is presently occupied by the Galle Cricket Club and Southern Province Cricket Association offices, which will be demolished. The new building will house the offices of the Galle CC and SPCA.The project is scheduled for completion prior to the visit of the New Zealand in May 2003 for a Test series. Sri Lanka is also expected to host tours of the English and Australian teams next year.A separate project will see a new scoreboard constructed at this stadium at the same time.