The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has cleared all 68 cricketers randomly tested during the World Cup. Their samples produced a negative result for banned substances.”The fact that all drug tests at the World Cup proved negative is a great result for the game. It sends out a very positive message, something everyone connected with the game can be very proud of” Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, said.Speed also said that the tests confirms cricket’s low-risk reputation when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs, but warned against complacency in this regard. Fifteen of the tournament’s 51 matches were randomly chosen. Two players from the teams involved in these matches were, again, randomly picked for testing, giving a total of 68 samples that were sent for analysis.But there was indeed some drug-related controversy in the run up to the World Cup, when Pakistan fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were found to have consumed nandralone in an internal drug test conducted by the Pakistan Board. The duo were initially banned but cleared by an enquiry committee led by Justice Fakhruddin Ibrahim.The WADA had strongly contested the findings of the committee, and a case regarding the matter is still in arbitration. The official reason given by the Board for the absence of the two from the World Cup was that they were injured.Asif has since been selected in the Pakistan squad to take on Sri Lanka in three ODIs in Abu Dhabi, while Shoaib has been picked in the Asian squad to take part in the Afro-Asia Cup next month.
Carlton Baugh stroked a belligerent half-century to lift West Indies A to a series-clinching four-wicket victory over England A at the Windward Club. Baugh, the dimunitive wicketkeeper-batsman, pulled West Indies A from a precarious 50 for 5 to help them to a target of 182 with ten overs to spare.Omari Banks, the offspinner, had led the choke operation this morning, snaring three wickets and restricting England A to a modest 181. Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy chipped in with two wickets apiece and, barring Alex Wharf’s rapid 37, none of the batsmen found the going too easy.West Indies A stumbled to 50 for 5, but were bailed out of trouble by Baugh. With the pressure on, Baugh lashed 71 off 73 balls with five fours and four sixes that eventually guided West Indies to a comfortable victory. It took them to a 3-2 series win after a fine 1-0 triumph in the two-match unofficial Test series. Baugh was especially severe on Gareth Batty, the offspinner, who he belted for three sixes and he thoroughly dominated a sixth-wicket partnership of 101 with Narsingh Deonarine.Left-handed Deonarine, short of runs in the series, benefited from a vital missed stumping on 9 to finish on an unbeaten 34, while Darren Sammy rushed West Indies to victory by spanking 20 off just 16 balls with four boundaries. Baugh first signalled his intentions by lifting Batty over cover for his first six. The second also went over cover off the back foot against the same bowler, who was then lifted over midwicket.His fourth six was his most memorable, charging fast medium Rikki Clarke and lifting him over extra-cover. Baugh eventually holed out to deep midwicket attempting a fifth six with 31 runs still needed, but there were no further alarms for West Indies.Their early problems were caused by Sajid Mahmood, the tall fast bowler, who emerged as the leading wicket-taker in both the Tests and limited-overs series with 24 scalps overall. Mahmood, who finished with 3 for 34 in nine overs, had Lendl Simmons caught at the wicket, induced Marlon Samuels (19) into top-edging an attempted hook and had Sylvester Joseph (7) chipping a catch to cover.
Scorecard Honours were pretty much even at the end of a low-scoring first day between Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates in their Intercontinental Cup match at Sharjah. Hong Kong were shot out for 126, but UAE fared little better and had stumbled to 126 for 7 by the close.Gunthorpe (38) and Ilyas Gul (32 not out) managed the only resistance of note for Hong Kong; no other batsman made double figures. Mohammad Tauqir took 3 for 31, but the miserly figures of Khuram Khan (19-9-20-2) and Rizwan Latif (8-3-11-2) also stand out; they each took two wickets at barely one run an over. Kahn then shone with the bat – he posted a top score of 56 – while it was Gul’s turn to star with the ball; he took 3 for 16 from 10 to keep this match hanging firmly in the balance.
Daniel Marsh, Tasmania’s captain, was delighted with his team’s unusually lofty mid-season standing after a 213-run win over South Australia at the Adelaide Oval.The resounding victory lifted Tasmania into second place in the Pura Cup table, behind Victoria, unfamiliar territory at this stage of the year given Tasmania’s tradition of poor starts.”Normally we’re just starting our run, we normally don’t get too many points before Christmas,” Marsh said. “And I guess the beauty is we’ve got Michael Di Venuto to come back into the team and Shane Watson to start bowling again, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.”Watson, an Australian one-day player who had to withdraw from last year’s World Cup squad with a back injury, has since been playing for Tasmania purely as a batsman. But Marsh said Watson had been bowling in the nets and was set to bowl later this month: “We’re hoping to have him right to bowl for the next one-dayer.”Tasmania cleaned up the win in the space of a session, taking the final six second -innings SA wickets needed. Chasing an improbable 430 to win in the final innings, SA resumed at 4-110 with little hope of avoiding defeat.Darren Lehmann (10) popped a simple catch to gully off Damien Wright’s bowling on the opening ball of the day. Gerard Denton, the Man of the match, picked up Graham Manou in the following over, then, in the fifth over of the day, Wright dismissed John Davison to leave SA on 7 for 126.By then a Tasmanian victory was inevitable, although Mick Miller and Mark Cleary delayed it with an entertaining stand of 65 in 99 balls.They took a particular liking to Shannon Tubb’s left-arm spinners, with Miller hitting consecutive sixes off one of his overs, and Cleary belting consecutive fours off his next over.Andrew Downton then bowled Cleary to snuff out SA’s resistance and they were all out for 216 soon after. Denton finished with 3 for 22 and Wright 5 for 43.SA’s meagre total today, along with their first innings of 112 – a record low against Tasmania – caused Lehmann to apologise to supporters.”We apologise for what we’ve been doing and we can only promise that we’ll work harder and play better,” he said. On a brighter note, Lehmann said he had pulled up well physically after his first Pura Cup match back from an achilles tendon injury.
Indian coach John Wright, captain Sourav Ganguly, Man of the match Anil Kumble and Zimbabwean captain Stuart Carlisle spoke to the press after India’s comprehensive innings and 101 runs win in the first Test at Nagpur.Deep Dasgupta’s continued poor showing behind the stumps has been a matter of concern in recent times. Speaking about the Indian wicket-keeper, Wright said, “He has to perform better. It is understandable that it is not easy to keep wickets like these which turn to this extent. But we have to perform better at the end of the day, he (Deep) has to take the chances.”A `keeper has a very important role when he is in a side which has quality spin bowlers. He has improved himself while standing behind, but standing up he has to improve drastically. He will be getting another chance and should work hard at doing better.”I don’t want to go into the selection matters, but at the end of the day, I would tell you, you should have your best `keeper in the side.”Fielding was one area in which the Zimbabweans proved to be better than the Indians and this did not escape the keen eyes of Wright.”As far as fielding is concerned, we have a long way to go. I’m very much impressed with the way Zimbabweans fielded and if we have to play overseas and against quality teams then I’m sorry to say, we have a long way to go. At the end of the day I would like to say that some of our best players are our worst fielders, that’s a fact,” the straight-talking Indian coach said.”I don’t know how I could change that. Basically, they need to field a lot better but sometimes people are at this part of their career that it is difficult to teach someone who has played for ten long years, how to dive,” he added.Wright also lauded Sanjay Bangar, who made a Test hundred in just his second Test at about the same time that another No. 7, Australia’s Adam Gilchrist, made the fastest double-hundred in Test history. “It is a nice thing for a team for the number seven batsman to come out and score a hundred.”Bangar might have succeeded in the most glorious fashion but VVS Laxman’s failure meant that a number of people were calling for the Hyderabadi stylist’s head. The former New Zealand captain was rousing in his defence of the star of India’s famous Test series win over Australia.”He is too good a player and there is no question about his ability. If you look at his last fifteen matches, he has an average of 43-44 but you have to look at his statistics. That delivery to which he got out in the first innings was very good. I have no doubts about his potential,” Wright said.Ganguly, for his part, agreed with his coach’s views, saying, “John has said it all, so I don’t have to go on saying something on the same topic.”Talking about the competition between Bangar and Sehwag, the skipper said, “Well, it is for the selection committee to decide. However, with Bangar serving us as an all-rounder, it will always be of great help.”Kumble, meanwhile, was happy with the way in which he and his colleagues bowled. “I think we did really well in the first innings. The second innings just happened to us. We had 280 odd runs to defend. I have always said that if the batsmen perform well, it makes our job that much easier.”It is good to bowl with Harbhajan in tandem. Like partnerships help a lot in batting, it is also the same for bowling. With Harbhajan and myself bowling from two ends, the task was much easier. bowled really well, though going wicketless. However, he got his rewards on the last day, scalping four wickets.”Carlisle, though, had no reasons to be as effusive as Kumble. His team’s batting failed twice on a batting paradise and that saw the Zimbabweans being thrashed. “Our batsmen have to get bigger scores. The Flower brothers have been struggling. They have to work hard and come back to their own selves.”The Zimbabwean captain was liberal in his praise for his left-arm spinner Raymond Price; the latter, if you remember, claimed 5 for 182 in India’s only innings.”I am very happy for Price. Streak bowled well too and full marks to (Trevor) Gripper in the second innings. Price is young and inexperienced but he did well. He should be getting to learn more and improve during the rest of the series. That’s one of the positives of this Test.”
KwaZulu-Natal woke up with a jolt after a painstaking first session atKingsmead, having been put in to bat by visitors Border on Friday, to end the first day in sight of a third batting bonus point on 231 for seven.They had reached that mark when bad light forced an early close after 92 overs, 12 short of the day’s complement, which means the Dolphins, who must take at least 15 points from the match to overhaul Eastern Province and secure a spot in the Super Eight phase of the competition, have another eight overs to add the extra 19 for a third point. Anything less than victory, though, means they’d be set to join last season’s champions, the Highveld Strikers, in the ranks of the also-rans.Mark Bruyns and Doug Watson opened the home side’s innings with a tortuous display, putting on just 31 runs off 29 overs before rain mercifully ended the morning session 20 minutes early. After lunch, left-armer Liam Graham snapped both up quickly, Bruyns having made 12 from 97 balls and Watson 14 from 98, before the Dolphins upped the tempo.Jon Kent lasted just five balls before Vasbert Drakes bowled him for a duck, but Ashraf Mall finally got the boundaries flowing – none were hit before lunch – with four fours in his 36 and, once he was out, captain Dale Benkenstein, who top-scored with 86, and wicketkeeper Errol Stewart (29) fashioned a stand of 107 in 93 minutes for the fifth wicket. The partnership took only 181 deliveries.With Wade Wingfield finishing unbeaten on 25 – Eldine Baptiste is hispartner on a single – the Dolphins had just about got themselves out of the hole by the end of the day, but there is plenty of work ahead against a formidable Border side.
Newcastle United have suffered an injury blow ahead of their trip to Southampton, with Federico Fernandez facing another spell on the sidelines thanks to a new issue.
The lowdown
Newcastle travel to St Mary’s on Thursday night looking to put further distance between themselves and the relegation zone.
An eight-game unbeaten run has seen them open up a seven-point cushion on 17th-place Burnley.
Fernandez was missing from the middle of December until the middle of February with a thigh problem, and his return to the matchday squad has lasted only two games (via Transfermarkt).
Elsewhere, The Magpies are without Isaac Hayden, Kieran Trippier, Callum Wilson and Jamal Lewis, all of whom are nursing longer-term injuries.
The latest
Newcastle World journalist Jordan Cronin relayed the news from Eddie Howe’s pre-match press conference on Twitter.
Fernandez is apparently ‘set to miss’ Newcastle’s run of three away games in the next week – Southampton, Chelsea and Everton.
The new injury is only ‘slight’ but it’s expected to keep him out ‘for a week to 10 days’.
The verdict
Fernandez has made seven Premier League appearances for Newcastle this season, but his last one came against Burnley in early December.
The £47,300-per-week ace actually impressed in the reverse fixture – a 2-2 draw at St James’ Park – with six clearances, a game-high four blocks and 71% duel success (via SofaScore).
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Howe has dubbed him an ‘outstanding player’, but Newcastle fan page Mouth of the Tyne say he now ‘appears to be finished’ as he struggles for fitness and that he may be ‘one of the first out the door’.
Cronin agreed with that assessment, pointing out that two new central defenders could arrive and render the Argentine surplus to requirements.
In other news, Ralph Hasenhuttl has also suffered a setback ahead of the game.
Pakistan’s national selectors will meet next week to pick the squad for the five-match ODI series against Bangladesh in April. A selector told that the selection committee will start taking inputs from the Pakistan team management before naming the squad.The selectors will be particularly keen on speaking to the management after it emerged that Geoff Lawson, the coach, was unhappy with the selection procedure before the ODI series against Zimbabwe. Lawson said, in a report to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), that despite assurances from the board he was not consulted in the finalisation of the 15-member squad named for the series, which Pakistan won 5-0.There have been reports of friction between coach and selectors earlier but this was the first time Lawson had put it in writing. PCB rules stipulate that national selectors should consult the captain and coach while finalising the squad during a home series. The selectors, though, have the prerogative to pick the final playing eleven, a change from the past when the team management had the authority to do this.Lawson’s grouse was that the selectors had not even consulted him while picking the full squad. In his report on the series against Zimbabwe, Lawson also talked about the 2011 World Cup and his doubts over whether allrounder Shahid Afridi had a role to play in the tournament. “The performance of Shahid Afridi will have to be closely monitored before finalising the likely team for the World Cup 2011,” he wrote.The series against Bangladesh was hurriedly lined up by the PCB after Australia refused to go ahead with the tour scheduled for March-April because of security concerns. Bangladesh are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on April 6 to play five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international. According to the unofficial itinerary, the opening match will be played on April 9 in Lahore, which will also host the second one-dayer on April 11. The rest of the ODIs will be played on April 14 in Faisalabad and April 17 and 20 in Rawalpindi. Karachi will host the only Twenty20 match on April 22.
Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum, who led the probe into match-fixing in the 1990s, has urged the Pakistan government to send investigators to Jamaica to help probe the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer.Qayyum refused to speculate on the possible motives for Woolmer’s murder but said that Pakistan’s government should get involved in the investigation. “Woolmer was our man. He was our coach and the government must send its own investigation team,” Qayyum told AFP.Qayyum also demanded a judicial inquiry into the Pakistan’s shock exit from the World Cup, amid rumours that Woolmer’s death was linked to gambling mafia. Ireland beat Pakistan by three wickets on March 17 and eliminated them from the World Cup. A day later, Woolmer was found strangled in his hotel room.”A judicial inquiry should be ordered into this fiasco,” said Qayyum. “Winning or losing is part of the game but the manner in which we lost against Ireland in particular needs to be inquired into.”In 2000, Qayyum, at the time a Lahore high court judge, led an inquiry into allegations of match-fixing centred on former Pakistan captain Salim Malik. Australian cricketers Shane Warne, Tim May and Mark Waugh had alleged that Malik offered them money to under-perform during Australia’s tour to Pakistan in 1994.The Qayyum inquiry banned Malik and fast bowler Ata-ur-Rehman for life and fined six others, including Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar and Akram Raza.Qayyum expressed surprise over the inclusion of Mushtaq in the 2007 World Cup. “Mushtaq Ahmed’s appointment as assistant coach was in violation of my recommendations that he should not be given any position in the squad, as a member or official,” said Qayyum.
Even more than confident opponents, West Indies face a formidable psychological barrier entering the second Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve tomorrow.It was erected in the few hours it took for certain victory to turn into stunning defeat in the first Test at Auckland’s Eden Park on Sunday, the implications of which were spelled out yesterday by Chris Gayle.”Devastating” was the word he used twice to explain the effect of the collapse from the opening partnership of 148 between himself and Daren Ganga to 263 all out that left West Indies 27 runs short of their winning goal. “If you dropped a pin you could hear it,” was how Gayle put it. “It was a shock, you couldn’t believe it. It was devastating.””I’m a person who is expressionless sometimes,” Gayle noted, with not a little understatement. “But it really hurts inside to go about losing a game. It is devastating to everyone. Every day you have to go to the drawing board and try to work out when the turnaround for West Indies cricket will be,” he added. “We still have a lot of cricket to play, we still have a lot of talent there and we still can get the job done.”In the interim, there has been the further setback of the loss of Ramnaresh Sarwan, a quality batsman in the pivotal No.3 position with a healthy average of 40 in his 59 Tests. Runako Morton, the standout in the preceding one-day internationals, gets the chance his form deserved, but team balance denied, in Auckland. Morton, the 27-year-old Nevisian, is a tough competitor for whom marriage and renewed religious convictions have combined to turn around a troubled career. His fielding, especially at slip, enhance his batting but, with only two Tests to his name, he lacks Sarwan’s experience.The left hamstring strain that restricted Jerome Taylor to eight overs in Auckland has also ruled him out of consideration here. He is a young fast bowler of considerable promise but, with only four Tests spread over three years, his replacement by Daren Powell, won’t diminish an attack short of experience. It is not personnel changes that will determine the level of the West Indies’ performance as much as how they respond to the “devastating” events of only a few days ago. Gayle’s forthright assessment of the mood in the camp at the moment of defeat in Auckland revealed the natural, initial reaction. It was as much to say that if they couldn’t win from a position of such strength, then they would never win. In the three days leading up to this Test, the main task of Bennett King, WestIndies’ coach, and his staff and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the captain, and his senior men was obvious. It was to persuade the players to take the more positive view that, in Auckland, they put themselves in an excellent position to defeat opponents with home advantage, three places higher than them on the ICC Test ratings and overwhelming favourites at the start. They can, therefore, do so again.King – now more relaxed following the predictable conclusions of the unnecessary and distracting Hendriks Report – commented after Auckland that they did not seize the moments when they were repeatedly presented with in Auckland. It is the weakness of all sporting teams unaccustomed to winning and few are as unaccustomed as the West Indies recently. A record of nine defeats in 12 Tests, the last seven in succession, leaves mental scars not easily erased. It is why the first Test result was even more demoralising than all the others. Victory would have been an incalculable fillip to self-belief, even the “turning point” Brian Lara predicted before the series . Lara spoke enthusiastically then of “a hunger in the team”. He said he sensed that the players were “embarrassed” by their performances in their 4-1 loss in the ODI series and noted a “very firm belief” that they could compete against New Zealand. That hunger and belief were clearly minimised by the first Test defeat.
By reputation, record and sheer force of personality, Lara is the likeliest catalyst to restoring them. He was more visibly and audibly involved than usual in Auckland, with tactical discussions with Chanderpaul and Sarwan and in cheer-leading in the field. The defeat, his double-failure with the bat and his dismissal by Shane Bond with the only two balls he received from the fast bowler were indignities enough to intensify his competitive edge. As history shows, the best from Lara does not necessarily translate into a team triumph but another double-hundred would not be out of place over the next five days.Nor would even half that for Chanderpaul. The beleaguered skipper has been unfairly burdened with a job for which he is not suited and in which he is clearly uncomfortable. It has diverted his focus from what he does best, score runs so consistently that he averages 43. The upshot is that he has not managed a half-century in his last 11 Test innings. Such a decline impinges of any leader’s authority, as the West Indies well know from their own tactic of targeting the opposition captain during the glory days under Clive Lloyd. Certainly, Chanderpaul has become less and less assured in both his roles.Lara, Chanderpaul and all the batsmen should find conditions more sympathetic to their cause than Auckland’s which offered movement through the air and off a pitch of variable pace so that totals were between 257 and 275 and only so many through missed catches on both sides and West Indies’ inability to seize their moments.