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LAHORE, Sept 23: Fine batting by Mohammad Umair (85) and Hasnain Abbas (71) helped Multan to earn a narrow three-wicket victoryagainst Rahimyar Khan in the National Junior (Under-19) Grade-II Cricket Championship at Mahmood Stadium, Rahim Yar Khan Monday, according toamessage received here.Multan, who gained a 86-run lead on the first innings, were set a target of 238 after Rahimyar Khan had piled up 323 in their second innings thanks to Shaharyar (82) and Mohammad Saleem (55).Meanwhile, to decide the Pool ‘D’ champions Faisalabad and Gujranwala will face each other at Jinnah Stadium, Gujranwala from Thursday.Owing to large of teams in this pool was divided into two groups. Faisalabad emerged as Group-I champions while Gujranwala topped the other group.The winners will play Pool ‘B’ winners Azad Jammu Kashmir in the semifinal.Summarised scores:*At Gymkhana Ground, Okara:Okara beat Kasur by five wickets.KASUR 231-8 in 80 overs (Shahid Hussain 53, Faisal Ayub 44; Zulfiqar Babar 5-67) and 149 (Zulfiqar Babar 6-35);OKARA 290 in 78.5 overs (Noman Nasim 105, Jawwad Hafeez 55; Mohammad Aslam 4-118) and 91-5 (Noman Nasim 42 not out; Ahmed Raza 4-24).*At Mahmood Stadium, Rahimyar Khan:Multan beat Rahimyar Khan by three wickets.RAHIMYAR KHAN 169 in 53.3 overs (Adeel Basit 65; Umar Zaman 5-43) and 323 (Shaharyar 82, Mohammad Saleem 55, Fayyaz-ul-Hasan 52, Afrahim Zia 41; Mohammad Umair 6-84).MULTAN 255 in 67.1 overs (Yasir Arafat 130; Aamir Akram 3-72) and 238-7 (Mohammad Umair 85, Hasnain Abbas 71; Adeel Basit 6-73).*At Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad:Larkana beat Hyderabad by 22 runs.LARKANA 116 in 42.4 overs (Farrukh Zaman 4-9, Furqan Azeem 3-30) and 173 (Zafar Ali 46);HYDERABAD 162 in 68 overs (Salman Hyder 58; Wasim Hussain 5-46) and 140 (Suleman Haider 52; Wasim Hussain 3-35, Ahmed Ali 3-52).*At D.I. Khan, D.I. Khan:Haripur beat Dera Ismail Khan by 10 wickets.DERA ISMAIL KHAN 87 in 39.5 overs (Amjad Waqas 6-28) and 275 (Mohammad Imran Baloch 46, Falak Kamran 43, Mohammad Irfan Khan 41; Amjad Waqas 8-89);HARIPUR 321 in 75.4 overs (Babar Khan 78, Usman Sawati 63, Asghar Khan 54; Kashif Niazi 4-66) and 43-0.*At Nawabshah Stadium, Nawabshah:Match drawn.BADIN 273 in 79.5 overs (Imran Malik 86, Danish 46; Sharafat Ali 3-66) and 228 (Ahmed Khan 56; Sharafat Ali 6-65);SHIKARPUR 305-7 in 80 overs (Najeebullah 101, Asif Babar 98; Kamran 3-96) and 169-6 (Ghulam Yasin 84 not out, Najeebullah 62).

A laid-back Pakistan team enjoyed a day of carefree batting practice at Country Club, the CFX Academy headquarters in the eastern suburbs of Harare, finishing the day with 352 on the board for the loss of five wickets. With one unfortunate exception, all the leading batsmen enjoyed their meal but nobody made a pig of himself.The pitch was flat, although it had a little pace, and the bowling not too testing; none of Zimbabwe’s young hopefuls among the bowlers was able to trouble the batsmen or press a claim for a Test berth. Saleem Elahi (49) and Taufeeq Umar (86) enjoyed an opening stand of 127, before getting out and allowing two even better innings from Younis Khan (84) and a slim-looking Inzamam-ul-Haq (63).Inzamam-ul-Haq, scourge of Zimbabwe’s bowlers on their first tour here in 1994/95, was the master, toying with the bowlers for 63 off 62 balls before he decided he had had enough. Younis Khan looked to be heading for a century but was well caught at long leg by Nkala running in.The only batsman to miss out was Yousuf Youhana (1), ironically the one most in need of practice. He fell victim to cricket’s most unfair law, that which allows a non-striker doing his job properly to be fortuitously run out by an accidental deflection off the bowler. A straight drive from Younis and a boot from Blessing Mahwire, whose intention was merely to stop the ball, did the trick for the luckless Youhana, the man who played so many vital innings for Pakistan when they last toured Zimbabwe in 1997/98.Hasan Raza, officially the world’s youngest Test cricketer since he made his debut against Zimbabwe six years ago at the age of 14, finished the day unbeaten with 32, and Shahid Afridi with 21. Pakistan might well decide to bat on tomorrow to give them more sustenance.

Within a few hours of securing a series win against Sri Lanka for his country, Marcus Trescothick was back at the County Ground preparing to lead Somerset in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy fourth round tie against Hampshire at Taunton tomorrow.At the same stage of the competition last year Marcus scored a devastating 121 against Glamorgan, including a century from 69 balls, and will doubtless be looking to lead from the front again tomorrow.Looking ahead to the match he told me: “I’m very excited about it, after all it’s the first chance that we have had to defend the trophy, and of course we will be going out to try to retain it this season.”He continued: “We need to build upon our first NUL win on Sunday a get a roll going. We have been slowly moving forward and are getting better all the time. Now we need to keep it going.”Marcus will lead a Somerset side that will be without Andy Caddick, who is suffering from a side strain, but batsman Jamie Cox could also be missing.The Tasmanian missed the NUL game at Bath on Sunday after taking a blow to his hand during the Hampshire game, and did not bat in the nets this morning.Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: “Jamie will have a late fitness test in the morning before we make a final decision. Of course we hope that he will be able to play, but if he doesn’t then Matt Wood will take his place.”Kevin added: “Even without Andy and Jamie I think that we have got a good side, and we pulled off a great win on Sunday which has done us all a lot of good.”The full Somerset squad for the Hampshire match is: Marcus Trescothick, Peter Bowler, Jamie Cox, Mike Burns, Keith Parsons, Ian Blackwell, Rob Turner, Keith Dutch, Richard Johnson, Steffan Jones, Matt Bulbeck and Matt Wood.Certainly the players were in buoyant mood ahead of the tie. Peter Bowler told me: “Of course I’m looking forward to it, and we are well equipped to beat them. We are a good side and are going into this game on the back of two one day victories.”Fast bowler Richard Johnson who enjoyed match figures of 10 for 75 against Hampshire at Bath last week told me: “I’m looking forward to a good victory tomorrow.”Play gets underway at the County Ground tomorrow at 10.45am, and tickets will be on sale at the gate priced £10 and £7.

MELBOURNE, Aug 8 AAP – Australia Test cricketer Mark Waugh today echoed his brother Steve’s reservations about touring Pakistan in October after the latest violence.Six Pakistanis were shot dead in an attack on a school for children of foreign missionaries near Islamabad on Monday.”Obviously what happened two days ago with the shooting at the international school puts a few more question marks over the tour,” Waugh told Melbourne radio station Sport 927 today.”There’s no doubt about that. I think the ACB (Australian Cricket Board) would be first to admit that.”Several other senior players have also expressed reservations about the tour.On Tuesday, Test captain Steve Waugh said he would be happy to go to Pakistan if it was deemed safe, but stressed the players would rely on information from other sources.”I think every one (of the players) would have some slight reservations after what’s happened in the past, it’s only natural,” Steve said.”You’ve really got to be guided by High Commissions and those places tell you what the feeling is, whether it’s safe for tourists to go there.”If it’s deemed safe enough to go, then I’m quite happy to go, but if they say it’s not then the (Australian Cricket Board) will make that decision (not to go).”New Zealand pulled out of its Pakistan tour in May after a bomb near its hotel killed 14 people in Karachi.ACB spokesman Pat O’Beirne said the latest attack “adds some currency” to advice the board is receiving from Australian Government officials and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).”The tragic recent incident has increased concern about the tour,” O’Beirne said today.”We will continue to monitor our information over the next short while.”

Hampshire’s players reported back for pre-season training after the Easter holidays today, with four fresh faces and a new trainer/physiotherapist to meet.Captain Robin Smith, who returned this weekend from hosting a touring party to New Zealand, introduced new signings John Crawley and Nic Pothas to the squad, along with last seasons’ successful second XI players Chris Benham and James Tomlinson, who joined the full time staff.Crawley, after his traumatic winter, was fitting in well with his new teammates and looked in fine touch in the nets against the pace-men and the spinners. He was also marvelling in the splendour of his new surrounds.Pothas, the South African who holds a Greek passport, confessed to having never previously met his new captain Robin Smith before today.He was reminded, however, by the webmaster and club statistician that it was Smith who had caught him out in December 1995, when he hit his maiden first-class century (147) for South African Combined Universities against the England tourists at Pietermaritzberg.Overseas star Neil Johnson, all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas and batsman-wicketkeeper Iain Brunnschweiler were missing, as they are still involved in their domestic cricket in South Africa and Australia respectively.Also making his first appearance with Hampshire was Australian trainer Patrick Farhart, who was kept busy during the day with various niggles, including a stress fracture problem for James Schofield and the continued recuperation of spinner Charlie van der Gucht.

CFX ACADEMY MEDIA OPEN DAYThe CFX Academy held a Media Open Day on the morning of Monday 29 April, which was attended by ten local media representatives, including CricInfo and one pressman each from Bulawayo and Mutare.The morning began with refreshments at ten o’clock, and was followed by a welcome from administration manager Temba Mkhosana. He followed this with a brief history of the Academy, the brainchild of Dave Houghton, and a video of the South African SuperSport programme Extra Cover, which showed Mike Haysman interviewing Houghton about the Academy.Mr Mkhosana then went into more detail about the history and the function of the Academy. It opened on a wing and a prayer in 1999, most of the money coming as the result of Houghton’s sponsored walk from Bulawayo to Harare the previous year, which raised public awareness as well as money.There followed a question time and tour of the Academy facilities and the house where the students live, 100 metres from the ground. Finally the media were able to observe a practice session run by Eddo Brandes, who has taken over as head coach from Dave Houghton, and speak to some of the students.Below are some extracts from the Media Pack produced for the day.HISTORY OF CFX CRICKET ACADEMYThe CFX cricket Academy in Zimbabwe was established by Dave Houghton who raised the initial capital with his sponsored walk from Bulawayo to Harare which took 22 days in June 1999 and raised over Z$900 000.The CFX Cricket Academy is a non-profit organization funded by the community at large and the business community in particular. A fully equipped pavilion with state-of-the-art presentation facilities is complete. The ground has been upgraded and now has a wicket that the New Zealanders described as the best wicket they had played on. Bob Woolmer, on a recent coaching visit, commented that the Academy’s facilities were among the best he had seen anywhere in the world.The initial set-up of six all-weather nets with floodlights, three turf nets and three cricket cages were included in the original capital budget. The CFX Cricket Academy falls under the umbrella of the governing body, ZCU, who have helped with the capital start-up costs and have also purchased a house for the students to live in whilst they attend the Academy.The name `CFX Cricket Academy’ is derived from our main sponsor, CFX, who have committed themselves to sponsor the Academy up to the next World Cup in 2003. Joining CFX are individuals and businesses who are approached to sponsor the CFX Cricket Academy and who are identified by boundary board advertising around the cricket ground which is at Country Club.The other large source of support is directed at individual student sponsorship of $100 000 a year, and the CFX Cricket Academy is indebted to its longstanding sponsors. There is both plenty of scope for new sponsors who are interested in supporting the development of cricket among the youth of Zimbabwe and gaps around the boundary for their advertising boundary boards!For two years, students of the CFX Cricket Academy spent their winter attached to cricket clubs in the UK. This has proved to be an invaluable experience for the students who have come from diverse backgrounds. Candidates have been selected from all walks of life and from urban and rural centres. There have been representatives from Bulawayo, Chivhu, Chitungwiza, Gweru, Harare, Karoi, Mhangura, Norton, Ruwa and Selous, from both high-density and low-density areas.Judging by the number of students who have been selected for both the national and the Zimbabwe A sides, the principle of selecting students on merit has proven successful. The most recent CFX Cricket Academy ambassadors in the public eye include Dion Ebrahim, Sean Ervine, Gary Brent, Douglas Marillier and Travis Friend, who has firmly established his position in the national side. Since its inception CFX cricket Academy has been responsible for the training of several students who have been selected for both the national and A sides.The CFX cricket Academy itself has played most of the touring international sides, including New Zealand, Bangladesh, India and West Indies, the most notable performance being a four-run loss toe West Indies in a nail-biting finish watched by about 2000 supporters.Our major objective is to produce players of international calibre and also to promote the development of the game in the remotest corners of our country. We rely heavily on companies to sponsor cricket through us by student sponsorship, boundary board advertising and donations.MANAGEMENT STRUCTUREMr Gwynne Jones left the Academy to take up a post with Scottish cricket at the end of 2001 and since then a new team has been engaged to run the affairs of the Academy. Unfortunately we have also just lost the services of the founder of this Academy, Mr David Laud Houghton, who has decided to move to England for a short while. The new structure is as follows:Head Coach: Eddo BrandesAdministration Manager: Temba MkhosanaAssistant Coach: Walter ChawagutaBatting Coach: Alistair CampbellSecretary: Anthea ReelerBookkeeper: Trish HawkesFitness Trainer: Steve ScottPsychology Consultant: Graham PriorMarketing Agent: Jacky WhiteTo assist the above team and map out the policies of the CFX Cricket Academy is a Management Committee that also includes the Administration Manager and Secretary.Chairman: Ray GripperCFX Bureaux de Change: Kevin ButlerFinance: Zed RusikeZCU Board Member (i/c Development): Mac DudhiaMarketing: Pip Maxwell and Craig AnticevichThe Academy year is now set to run from February to September, after which the students will be posted to the five major provinces in Zimbabwe – Masvingo included from 2002/03 season – to play and coach. The aim is to prepare the students to be good citizens as well as sportsmen, and therefore the curriculum includes subjects not directly connected with the game. The booklet lists six areas: sports management, cricket studies, physical development, sports psychology, sports medicine and injury prevention, and life skills. The programme includes several sessions on studying other cultures, mainly African and Asian.After the students leave at the end of September, the Academy facilities will be available for the junior age-group sides, the Under-14, Under-16 and Under-19s, to prepare for their annual visit to South Africa at the end of the year.There is also recognition of the need to work together with other academies and countries involved in cricket development. It is hoped to offer Academy places to students from Kenya, Namibia and possibly Zambia in future years. There is also the possibility of hosting foreign age-group teams during the end-of-year period.

Railways cricket team manager today lodged a protest with the matchreferee against the “controversial” umpiring decisions on the finalday of the Ranji Trophy final played at Baroda. “Some of the decisionstaken by umpires during the final were clearly biased againstRailways,” Kamlesh Gupta told PTI on phone from Baroda.Gupta said he had yesterday drawn the attention of the match refereetowards a couple of wide ball decisions given by umpires. “I drew theattention of the referee and the matter was amicably solved and afterthat no controversial decisions regarding wide balls were given. Guptasaid he was today forced to voice his protest in writing after thecontroversial dismissals of Yere Goud, Shreyas Khanolkar and MuraliKartik in Railways second innings. “All the three – Goud, Khanolkarand Kartik were definitely not out. We watched the TV replays and areconvinced they were not out,” Gupta said, adding, “I am not sure evenwhether Kulamani Parida was out”.Gupta said he had urged the referee to intervene much before Railwaysconceded the 21-run defeat to the hosts. However, Gupta also conceded”the referee could not do so in keeping with the code of conduct whichsays the game can not be interrupted in between.”While Goud was given out, caught behind by Nayan Mongia off ZaheerKhan, Khanolkar was declared leg before wicket for deliberatelypadding the ball. Tempers frayed when Kartik was given caught behindoff Ajit Bhoite. Kartik gestured angrily at the umpire beforereturning to the pavilion.

Another serious blow has battered Zimbabwe cricket. Dave Houghton, coach at the CFX Academy, has responded to the ongoing situation in the country by resigning his job, and by the end of April he will have immigrated to England to take up a job there with television companies.Houghton was one of Zimbabwe’s greatest batsmen who might well have achieved the same sort of reputation that Andy Flower now holds in world cricket had Zimbabwe been admitted to the Test arena a few years earlier. He scored a century against India in Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test match and still holds the record for the country’s highest Test score, 266 against Sri Lanka, and shares one-day record with 142 against New Zealand in the World Cup of 1987/88.While still at his peak as a player, he was employed by Worcestershire as a coach, and then progressed to the position of Zimbabwe national team coach while still a player. He then became coach at the Academy, where he was held in high regard by the students; they will be shattered by his departure and it may well prove impossible to replace him adequately, especially in the current situation in the country.Zimbabwe cricket cannot afford to lose Dave Houghton. He could have given so much to the future of cricket in Zimbabwe. How many more invaluable cricket people will be lost before the current tragic situation in the country ends? So far the rest of the world has been of little help, and the response of the Australians by cancelling their tour has been an appalling blow to cricket in the country. Not to mention the apathy of the ICC in this situation. Is the cricketing world going to stand by and watch Zimbabwe cricket die – or even play their part in helping it to die?***This issue consists mainly of biographies, as there has been little action on the field. We feature Conan Brewer and Allan Mwayenga from the CFX Academy and updates of the biographies of Patrick Gada and Matabeleland players Ryan King and Clement Mahachi.

Queensland has strengthened its chances of hosting a second Pura Cup Final in succession by coasting to an important outright victory over Western Australia in theteams’ match here at the ‘Gabba this afternoon. The eight wicket success, which arrived shortly after lunch on the third day, has allowed the Bulls – temporarily at least- to skip away to an eight point break at the top of the Cup table with just two rounds of matches left to play.After starting the day with a lead of 113 runs and with only three second innings wickets still in hand, the Warriors’ tailenders went out in an attempt to build acompetitive target for the Bulls to chase. However, the Western Australians added only another twenty-one runs. Paceman Andy Bichel claimed two of the final threewickets to fall, and returned the impressive figures of 5/74 in the process. Adam Dale (3/56) was the morning’s other Queensland wicket-taker.With only a small target to chase, Bulls openers’ Jimmy Maher (59) and Jerry Cassell (27) looked to wrap things up in quick time. In aggressive style, they posted aneighty-one run partnership prior to lunch before Cassell fell to the spin of Brad Oldroyd.Following the lunch break, Andrew Symonds was given a promotion in the batting line-up and came in at number three. The first and third balls of the first over afterlunch were sent sailing into the ‘Gabba grandstands off his bat; another three boundaries came from the next Oldroyd over; and then a further six was struck in thefollowing over to ensure that the Bulls’ win was secured the mere matter of twenty-five minutes after the resumption.Maher, while quite obviously scoring more slowly, continued to play well at the other end on his way to an impressive half century.Oldroyd had gone into lunch with the figures of 1/0. However, he might now wish that he had stayed in the dining room because, when he returned to the middle, theSymonds and Maher onslaught blew his figures out to 1/42 off the only five overs that he bowled for the match.Matthew Nicholson (1/25) eventually exacted a small measure when he claimed Maher’s wicket with only two runs required for victory.The winning runs were, however, duly polished off quickly to give the Bulls what is now an eight point break over second-placed Victoria and a twelve point lead overthird-placed New South Wales.But, whilst the Queenslanders will likely head into their upcoming road trips to both South Australia and New South Wales brimming with confidence, their captainStuart Law warned that his side needs to guard against complacency.”The side is aware of the fact that a Final is possibly around the corner but it has been a long, hard season and we’ve worked hard to get in this position. It would be atragedy if we started having a hiccup now,” he said after play.”The hard work begins now for us, especially with these games in Sydney and Adelaide which are vitally important.””The match in Sydney will be (especially) tough. We have to dig deep there; the pitch will be a dust bowl and we have to be ready for it.”Warriors’ captain Tom Moody later refused to concede that his team (which is now as many as eighteen points behind today’s opponent) was out of the Pura Cuprace. But it was another disappointing day overall for the Warriors and for Moody himself given that it was his last-ever match in Brisbane.Western Australia’s double losses here this week – today’s heavy defeat was preceded by a 65 run drubbing in a Mercantile Mutual Cup match – could probably nothave come at a worse time, with the one-day Final approaching next weekend.Moody was adamant, however, that his team will have salved any mental and physical scars by the time that it takes the field in that match – against New South Walesin Perth on Sunday.”I don’t think it will affect our focus,” he argued.”Ideally, we came up here to get a roll in both the one-day and four day matches, and this may well come as a timely kick up the backside.””It lets us know where we stand: we have a lot of good players who we need to get going.”

Ross Taylor, the New Zealand captain, has credited his bowlers for adapting to the unusual challenge posed by the reinstalled pitch at the Eden Park during the first Twenty20 game against Pakistan that the hosts won by five wickets. The strip had been reoriented ahead of the match, with the new drop-in track running from north to south, making the straight boundaries shorter than normal, forcing the bowlers to rework their lengths.”Obviously the square [boundary] is a lot bigger, so if we erred, we erred on the shorter side, so that if they wanted to hit sixes, hopefully they hit it over the bigger boundary,” Taylor said. “The angles were a bit easier than before, when it used to be a left-hand batsman’s ground. It has now probably evened out to be a more equal batsman’s ground.”Pakistan’s top order cashed in on the unusual dimensions as they got off to a flier, with Shahid Afridi in particular targeting the short boundaries, and a few mis-hits carrying all the way. The introduction of Tim Southee changed the complexion of the game, as he derailed Pakistan with a smart set of variations, earning a five-for, including a hat-trick. He began his handiwork by nailing Ahmed Shehzad with a slower ball and Younis Khan with a short delivery.”With the ground a bit bigger squarer, you have got more margin for error with the slower ball and bouncers and things like that,” Southee said later. “I think that’s the way we went at it, as a bowling unit.”Southee’s burst restricted Pakistan to an under-par 143 and, despite the loss of wickets from one end, Martin Guptill ensured New Zealand had the momentum to chase it down comfortably. Taylor credited new coach John Wright for Guptill’s refreshing approach at the crease. “With John coming into the side, he’s started to get you to trust yourself and go out and play instinctively,” Taylor said, “and the way Guptill went out there today was definitely that. I am sure he will get a lot of confidence from that.”Another positive sign for New Zealand was the emergence of the 18-year-old seamer Adam Milne who impressed with pace and bounce on his debut, though his figures of 0 for 46 suggested otherwise. “I thought he bowled well,” Taylor said. “There were a couple of times where he was a bit unlucky, nicks and inside edges going for fours which ruined his figures a little bit.”But he’s 18 and he showed good pace and control for a youngster, even though he was getting a little bit of tap around the field, he kept a level head and he’s got a big future. He would have learnt a lot from the way he bowled today and the next time he comes on to bowl, he will be a better bowler.”