Canadian Victory, Zimbabwe protests, to play or

not to play?, Lara back to his best and Dutch courage,

among other news from week one of the 2003 ICC Cricket

World Cup.

Before I get into the details of the week's action on

the cricket field, a brief look at the more interesting

stuff going on off the field.

Before the World Cup started, New Zealand withdrew from

their game against Kenya on the grounds of a terrorist

threat, although they are now reconsidering that

decision. England, however, have been dithering about

wehether to play their opening match against Zimbabwe in

Harare or not, and this week finally decided not to, but

the whole kerfuffle over whether to take part really was

farcical, and is described well in the news item titled a never ending farce on the

BBC Sport website.

Interestingly, two Zimbabwean cricketers, Andy Flower

and Henry Olonga, wore black armbands during the sides

opening game as an act of protest against the actions of

the Mugabe government. More detail on that here.

Not all the off-field news has concentrated on politics

though. Legendary Australian Leg-spin bowler Shane Warne

was sensationally sent home on the eve of the Aussies'

opening game after failing a drugs test. The Australian

Cricket Board (ACB) said Warne had tested positive for the

drugs hydrochlorothizide and amiloride, both of which are

diuretics which were part of Warne's slimming supplement.

However, they can also serve as masking agents to hide

traces of performance-enhancing drugs, and are banned in

cricket for just that reason. Warne had already announced

that he would retire from one day internationals after the

World Cup in order to concentrate on test cricket, but he

may be forced into retirement from both forms of cricket

if his 'B' sample also tests positive, as he could face a

two-year ban from the ACB.

So, aside from drugs and politics, the first week of

the cricket World Cup also threw up some games of cricket,

which I shall sum up after explaining the overall format

of the tournament... The World Cup is split into two

groups of seven for the first stage, with the top three

from each group going into what is called the 'super six'

phase, where the teams then play the qualifiers from the

other first round group, while carrying forward their

results against the other qualifiers of their own group.

The top four from this 'super six' then play the semi

finals, 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd, with the winners of the

semifinals (unsurprisingly) playing the final.

I hope that made sense. If not, have a look at this.

• Sunday February 9th - West Indies beat South
  
  Africa by three runs, Cape Town

  A nice start to the tournament as second-favourites
  
  South Africa suffer a narrow defeat at the hands of the
  
  West Indies. The Windies batted first, and found
  
  themselves in deep trouble at 7-2¹, before Brian Lara did a bit of what he's best
  
  at, stabilising the innings with Shivnarine Chanderpaul,
  
  and hitting a cracking century. Lara's 116 off 134 balls
  
  was backed up by good solid innings from Chanderpaul,
  
  captain Carl Hooper², Ricardo Powell
  
  and Ramnaresh Sarwan. None of South Africa's bowlers
  
  really managed to assert themselves on the game, and the
  
  Windies ended with 278-5 from their 50 overs. Penalised
  
  due to a slow over rate, South Africa only got 49 overs in
  
  which to reply. South Africa, led by a good 69 by opener
  
  Gary Kirsten, and a beligerent 57 from Lance Klusener,
  
  looked to be well and truly in with a fight. And so to
  
  the last over, six balls of one day cricket at it's best.
  
  South Africa needed 8 to win, with. Klusener was caught
  
  on the boundary trying for a six, but he and Nicky Boje
  
  had failed to cross, leaving new batsman Makhaya Ntini on
  
  strike. With South Africa needing eight runs from two
  
  balls, Ntini tried for a six, and was caught on the
  
  boundary, leaving last man Allan Donald needing an
  
  impossible eight runs off Vasbert Drakes' last ball. A
  
  leg-bye four was the result. A nailbiting climax to an
  
  exciting match. If anyone had been writing Brian Lara and
  
  his West Indian team off as a spent force, they surely
  
  won't be doing so any longer.

• Monday February 10th - Zimbabwe beat Namibia by
  
  86 runs (D/L method), Harare

  Zimbabwe's fifty overs yielded a magnificent 340-2,
  
  with opener Craig Wishart getting a national record one
  
  day international score of 172 not out. Anmibia had
  
  struggled to 104-5 after 25 overs and one ball before the
  
  remainder of the match was abandoned due to rain.
  
  Zimbabwe won by 86 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis Method,
  
  a truly bewildering system which works out winners using
  
  statistical tables. One of my favourite cricketing
  
  stories regards England playing a one-day international in
  
  Zimbabwe (in the days when it was safe for them to do so).
  
  Graeme Hick and Mark Ealham were batting, and realised
  
  that rain was coming. Hick, who admits to failing O-Level
  
  maths, got the table out of his pocket, traced along with
  
  a pencil, worked out that England would lose if it rained,
  
  had a chat with Ealham, and then scored sixteen runs off
  
  the over to get England ahead on the D/L method. No such
  
  heroics were possible for the Namibians. It was in this
  
  match that Olonga and Flower made their anti-government
  
  protest, wearing black armbands to mourn 'The death of
  
  democracy'. This start, added to another four points
  
  which Zimbabwe may get when England fail to play in
  
  Harare, puts Zimbabwe in a useful position early
  
  on.

• Monday February 10th - Sri Lanka beat New Zealand
  
  by 47 runs, Bloemfontein

  Sri Lanka cruised to victory in this game, thanks in
  
  large part to a second wicket strand of 170 between Sanath
  
  Jayasuriya (who scored a total of 120) and Hashan
  
  Tillakaratne, who went on to score an unbeaten 81.
  
  All-rounder Nathan Astle was New Zealand's best bowler
  
  with 3 wickets for 34. New Zealand's chase was an abject
  
  failure. With the exception of Scott Styris's brilliant
  
  141 from 125 balls, Chris Cairns' modest 32 was the only
  
  score worth mentioning. Sri Lankan all-rounder Russel
  
  Arnold took three wickets, including that of Styris, and
  
  Muttiah Muralitharan and Patashi Gunaratne took two each,
  
  as the 1996 World Champions showed they still have a
  
  quality side capable of going quite some way in this
  
  year's competition.

• Tuesday February 11th - Australia beat Pakistan
  
  by 82 runs, Johannesburg

  Defending champions Australia, reeling from the
  
  departure of bowler Shane Warne, claimed an easy victory
  
  over Pakistan, but they had to fight after slipping to
  
  52-3 early on. It was 86-4 when English-born all-rounder
  
  Andrew Symonds came in to bat. Symonds then played a
  
  truly fantastic innings, battering an unbeaten 143 from
  
  125 balls. Other than Symonds, only captain Ricky
  
  Ponting, with 53, really performed to anything approaching
  
  the standards expected of Australian batsmen. Towards the
  
  end Pakistan captain Waqar Younis fell foul of 'dangerous
  
  bowling' rules, when he was ordered out of the Pakistan
  
  attack for bowling two beamers around Symonds's head.
  
  Pakistan's most successful bowler of the match was veteran
  
  fast-bowler Wasim Akram, with 3-64. Thanks to Symonds and
  
  Ponting, Australia finished with 310 from their 50 overs.
  
  Aussie all-rounder Brad Hogg, now the main spinner after
  
  Warne's enforced absence, took three Pakistan wickets,
  
  while Gloucestershire captain Ian Harvey took four with
  
  his medium pace. Pakistan never really got going with the
  
  bat, and their joint top scorers were wicketkeeper Rashid
  
  Latif and bowler Wasim Akram, batting seventh and eighth,
  
  who led a bit of a rearguard action as Pakistan tried, but
  
  failed, to assert themselves on the match. They were
  
  eventually disamissed for only 228 from forty and a half
  
  overs. Even lacking the potent spin of Warne the
  
  Australians, who look likely to replace him in the squad
  
  with veteran leg-spinner Stuart McGill, are looking pretty
  
  fearsome, and deserving of their tag of
  
  favourites.

• Tuesday February 11th - Canada beat Bangladesh by
  
  60 runs, Durban

  Bangladesh must have fancied their chances of ending
  
  their 26-match one day international losing streak against
  
  the first Canadian team to compete in World Cup cricket
  
  since the inaugral World Cup of 1975. This confidence
  
  must have turned to expectation as the Canadians were
  
  dismissed for 180 with five balls to spare. Tidy bowling
  
  by the Bangladeshis, in particular Sanwar Hossain and Alok
  
  Kapali meant that only Ian Bicliff could put together an
  
  innings of any substance for the Canadians. But once Al
  
  Sahariar was dismissed for just nine, leaving Bangladesh
  
  on 33-1, the side imploded. Shariar's opening partner
  
  Hannan Sarkar and all-rounder Sanwar Hossain, with 25
  
  each, joint top-scored as Bangladesh collapsed to an
  
  embarrassing 120 all out from only 28 overs, Austin
  
  Coddington leading the impressive Canadian bowling attack
  
  with figures of 5-27.

• Wednesday February 12th - South Africa beat Kenya
  
  by 10 wickets, Potchefstroom

  The Kenyans found themselves steameollered by the South
  
  Africans, who made up for their opening day defeat in
  
  style, skittling Kenya for 140 from 38 overs before
  
  waltzing to 142 without loss from only 21 overs. The only
  
  Kenyan performance worth mentioning is Ravindu Shah's 60
  
  with the bat before being run out. Shah was run out by
  
  All-rounder Lance Klusener, who was in imperial form with
  
  the ball, taking 4-16 from his 8 overs. Herschelle Gibbs
  
  (87 not out) and Gary Kirsten (52 not out) both indulged
  
  in a bit of showboating en route to victory, Gibbs hitting
  
  four sixes and the duo hitting a total of 25 boundaries
  
  between them. The question is whether, throughout the
  
  reamaining group games, South Africa will play like they
  
  did today or whether, when presented with a challenge,
  
  they'll be outfought as they were against the West Indies.
  
  Only time will tell.

• Wednesday February 12th - India v
  
  Netherlands, Paarl

  The Netherlands got off to a fantastic start,
  
  all-rounder Tim de Leede taking four wickets as the
  
  Indians failed to perform with their customary panache
  
  with the bat. India struggled to 204 all out from 49
  
  overs, the legendary Sachin Tendulkar the only of their
  
  batsmen to pass fifty. The Dutch batsmen failed to
  
  capitalise on their team's fine fielding display, their
  
  total of 136 all out actually representing something of an
  
  improvement from a position of 54-7. The bowling of
  
  paceman Javagal Srinath and leg-spinner Anil Kumble, with
  
  four wickets each was too much and the Dutch succumbed to
  
  a 68-run defeat.

Group A Table

Group B Table

Sporting With Egon Archive

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