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Shane Warne was disappointed with the behaviour of some team-mates during his one-year drugs ban. Warne, who returns from a broken thumb in the first Test against New Zealand at the Gabba on Thursday, said he “worked out who my real friends were” after learning at the 2003 World Cup that he had tested positive to a banned diuretic.”Of all the team-mates I play with at Victoria, Hampshire and Australia, I was disappointed with a few of them,” Warne told Inside Cricket. “Very disappointed with them. Most were very supportive.”Warne also denied that there were rifts between him and Adam Gilchrist, who said Warne would have to fight to get some fans back on side, and Steve Waugh. “‘Gilly’ and I get along fine,” Warne said. “We have had a few disagreements over a few things. But just because of that doesn’t mean we don’t get along or that we are not friends. That’s press talk. There were rumours during the 1999 World Cup that myself and Steve Waugh were at loggerheads as vice-captain and captain and I don’t know where that came from. We are fine too.”Warne, who was dumped as Test vice-captain in 2000, said he still wanted to lead Australia, although that appears unlikely after his list of indiscretions. “I would liked to have done it and I think I would have done a pretty good job,” he said. “It’s not like I lie awake at night harping on it.” But Warne said Ricky Ponting has done a great job and he was 100% behind him.

The third league game of the Videocon Cup, between Pakistan and Australia, was abandoned because of rain. This meant that Pakistan and Australia were through to the final, and India would miss out. None of the Australian bowlers had managed to get a bowl in the tournament, but it was a moot point whether their lack of match practice would help Pakistan’s batsmen in the final – it had to stop raining first.

Alton, Trojans and Rowledge maintained their two wins out of two start, but Ventnor lost their unbeaten Southern Electric Premier League, Division 3 tag at Havant.Andy Balcombe and Ben Jansen took four wickets each as Alton dismissed Winchester KS for 79 to win by 56 runs at River Park.South African Erasmus Hendrikse (73) and a blistering 63 not out, including three huge sixes, by Jamie Donaldson took Trojans to a powerful 258-4 against Bashley II, who wilted to 167 all out.Rowledge chased New Milton’s 241-8 to secure an exciting last-over win, while Shane Ferguson’s 127 guided Havant to 227 before Hampshire Under-14 pair Chris Morgan and Stuart Ransley took three wickets each as Ventnor crumbled to 149 all out.Paultons captain John Robinson cracked an unbeaten 114 as Paultons totalled 218-8 before bowling run shy Flamingo’s out for 168 (Stu Shapland 57). Tony Richman and Peter Lamb took three wickets each in Flamingo’s demise.Mark Tomlinson took fivewickets and hit a half-century but was unable to save Leckford from a 70-run defeat by Waterlooville at Bakers Farm.Hambledon chased a mammoth 280-5 to beat basement boys Hook & Newnham Basics by four wickets.

* BCCI to decide on Indo-Aussie one-day series on August 10The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will decide on theparticipation of the Indian team in the proposed three-match limitedover series in Australia, during its working committee meeting onAugust 10.The BCCI executive secretary, Sharad Diwadkar told PTI in Mumbai onThursday that the venue for the working committee meeting would bedecided only after BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele returns from hisholiday abroad either on July 23 or 24. “The main agenda would be totry and fit the three one-dayers in the schedule if possible,” headded. The first two matches are to be played indoors at the ColonialStadium in Melbourne on September 21 and 23 and the last in Brisbane’sGabba on September 26.Though there were reports a couple of days ago that the series was offfollowing a clash of dates with India’s proposed Asian TestChampionship ties, the BCCI seems to be keen to fit the series in theIndian team’s already busy schedule.* BCCI questions Jadeja’s claim against violation of rightsThe Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday told the DelhiHigh Court that cricketer Ajay Jadeja, banned for five years on matchfixing charges, cannot claim any relief for violation of fundamentalrights as the Board has power to take action against a player for”misconduct” even on suspicion.”If the BCCI finds that the condcut of a player is not good, then hecannot be considered for selection in the team though he might be anicon. The Board can suspend a player if there is suspicion ofmisconduct against him even if there is no hard evidence,” BCCIcounsel Kapil Sibal told Justice Mukul Mudgal, while hearing Jadeja’spetition, challenging the ban.Asserting that the Board was not performing any of the functions ofthe state, Sibal said the team selected by BCCI to play matches withforeign teams, “does not represent India as a state but is a BCCI teamrepresenting India.” Since the Board was not performing any of thestate’s functions, Jadeja could not claim any relief under Article 226of the Constitution, Sibal said, adding his petition was liable to bedismissed. “He cannot even claim any damage through civil suit as theBCCI has no contract with him at present,” he said.The contract with a player is always signed by the Board after he isselected in a team for a particular season either to play Test matchesor one-dayers in the country or abroad, Sibal said adding that theBCCI rules were clear on this.* Hearing of Azhar’s case adjourned till July 19A civil court in Hyderabad on Thursday adjourned till July 19 thehearing of the case filed by former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddinchallenging the life ban imposed on him by the Indian Cricket Board.The second additional chief justice J Shyamsundar Rao, after hearingthe plea of Azharuddin’s counsel T Jagdish, who sought more time sincehis client was not present in the city, posted the next date ofhearing to July 19. Earlier, Jagdish, who prayed for obtaining theinquiry report of BCCI inquiry commisioner K Madhavan into the matchfixing scandal, was asked by the judge to file an application in thisregard.According to A Venkatesh, who appeared on behalf of BCCI, the inquiryreport was already submitted to the court on June 25. Jagdish, who wasdirected by the judge to forward an application to this effect,readily agreed to do so.

ScorecardFile photo: Unmukt Chand hammered 80 off 86 balls to seal a chase of 201 for Delhi•PTI

Delhi will play their second Vijay Hazare Trophy final after a comfortable, six-wicket victory over Himachal Pradesh in Bangalore. The last time Delhi set up a summit clash was quite recent too – in 2012-13 – and they won it.The difference between both teams was the contrast in their batting styles. While Delhi were assured and always in control, Himachal were subdued and impatient and could only muster 200 for 9 after being put in to bat.No one epitomised Delhi’s confidence as much as Unmukt Chand, who became the first batsman from his team to cross 300 runs in the tournament. His unbeaten 80 today included nine boundaries and was his third fifty-plus score in List A cricket this season.Chand had walked in after Rishabh Pant became the first wicket to fall, but not before the opener had set the tone for the chase with three crunching fours in the first three overs.Chand too began with a solid straight drive, then moved inside the line of another fuller ball for a flick to the fine leg boundary and capped the series off by skipping down the pitch for a six over long-on. Ronit More was the bowler being targeted; he bowled only eight balls to Chand but gave away 16 runs.Chand’s positivity was apparent even in the break between overs during chats with senior partner Shikhar Dhawan, who joined in the early fun and punished Himachal’s 20-year old medium-pacer Pankaj Jaiswal for trying to bowl short. Delhi collected eight fours and a six in the first 10 overs to set up a strong foundation to their chase.Himachal did have a chance to turn things around. A lapse in concentration resulted in Shikhar playing on to Bipul Sharma’s left-arm spin in the 18th over. Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir misread the line of one from part-time spinner Nikhil Gangta and was trapped leg before, continuing a dismal season with the bat – he averages 24.85 after eight matches with only one fifty. Milind Kumar lifted Himchal’s spirit further when he was run out by Ankush Bains in the 29th over.But Chand was still out there and he remained in charge. Barring a misjudged sweep against Bipul when he was on 55, he dominated the Himachal bowling and sealed the chase without any further hiccups.That Himachal even managed to get to 200, and last the 50 overs, was because of an aggressive half-century from their captain Bipul. He made 51 off 45 balls, the only man from the team to have a strike rate better than 100 on condition of at least five balls faced.Bipul had walked in with his team on 98 for 4 in the 31st over. Allrounder Rishi Dhawan had just got out for 9. The other two batting mainstays – Robin Bist and Paras Dogra – did not make much of an impact either.So it was down to Bipul to provide some substance to the innings. His first boundary came off a back cut against Pawan Negi. Then Bipul went with the turn and lofted the left-arm spinner for a straight six. Next Nitin Saini was taken for consecutive fours, and Nitish Rana’s offspin was launched down the ground for another maximum.His third six – straight again, off medium-pacer Subodh Bhatti – brought up the fifty partnership with No. 9 Mayank Dagar off only 46 balls. A dab into the off side for a single brought Bipul his first fifty in the tournament. But the enterprise he showed was absent in the rest of the Himachal batting line-up.Rishi Dhawan, who is part of the India squad for ODI series in Australia, punched the back of his bat in disgust after he was bowled attempting to sweep across the line of a straight delivery from Negi. Bist, who hit a match-winning century against Punjab in the quarter-final, nicked off when Saini was able to get one to move away off the straight.Dogra, Himachal’s most experienced batsman, was a victim of impatience. He had been part of a slow partnership – 45 off 78 balls – with opener Prashant Chopra who struggled to shift gears during his 33 off 69 balls. Chopra failed to capitalise and cut straight to point, the pressure slowly increased and Dogra, 28 off 64 balls at the time, succumbed to it when he played a half-hearted loft against Negi and was caught at long-off.Himachal could only put up 77 after 25 overs in their first innings, and it was this conservative approach with the bat that proved fatal for them.

Legspinner Shahzaib Ahmed took five wickets to help shoot out Australia Under-19 for 78 in the second one-dayer in Sheikhupura. Pakistan then cruised to a nine-wicket win as they chased down the target in 11.4 overs to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.Captain Sam Robson’s decision to bat backfired as the Australians slipped to 16 for 4. Kane Richardson and Jamie Smith helped stage a mini-recovery with a 43-run stand, but another collapse saw the last six wickets fall for 19 runs. Shahzaib was the star for Pakistan with 5 for 21 and was ably supported by the rest of the attack.The Pakistani opening batsmen, Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood, put on a rapid 76 to take their side to the brink of victory. They were helped in their cause by the indisciplined Australian bowlers who sent down 12 wides and overstepped on three occasions.The Australians had put on a better show in the first match on Thursday which they lost by seven wickets after setting a target of 199. Left-arm-spinner Imad Wasim was Pakistan’s wrecker-in-chief with five wickets while Shehzad and Masood laid the platform for the win with the bat.The remaining three one-dayers will be played at Mirpur, with the next game on Tuesday.

While Sushil Nadkarni has been the talk of the country’s cricket community in the last several months, a certain Niraj Shah from the same Houston Cricket League has been emerging from Sushil’s shadow, to develop into one of the finest allrounders in the country. Over the span of a year and a half Niraj has played a major part in several major tournaments in the country eventually leading to the National selectors taking notice of this young lad and awarding him with a place in the USA National squad.If Sushil has been the Tendulkar of Texas, Niraj has been accumulating runs with a Dravid-like consistency. It all began for him in the 2005 Central West Regional championships in Colorado where he bagged the MVP award for his allround performances. Later in the year, he captained the MLC Texas team to victory in the National Interstate tournament where he scored an unbeaten half century in the finals to see his team through. Another good fifty in a pressure-cooker situation at the Central West Regional finals, 2006 in Austin was followed by scores of 70, 106 not out and 59 in the National Western Conference Championships in LA which earned him the Best Batsman award and a National call-up.During the recently concluded Houston Twenty20 championships where Niraj led his team to a championship victory with an incredible allround performance in the finals, Vinod Periagaram got a chance to talk to the emerging 24-year-old star.Niraj, you have had a phenomenal year starting from the MVP of Central West regional championships in Colorado last year to the Western Conference Championships in LA where you were the best batsman two months ago. What would you attribute to this success in recent months?I have been consistent with the bat for the past two seasons now. I have stopped taking risks and have cut down on my aerial shots unless I am absolutely positive and am well set. My focus has been to be patient, play long and finish good. Although I have been consistently scoring fifties, my goal has been to convert those into big hundreds more often, since that is the hallmark of a great batsman. Hopefully, I can carry on the consistency I have over the past two years.You play one of the best pull shots in US cricket and seem to pick up the length really early. Is this something that comes naturally? Actually, I had to work really hard to perfect this shot. I was a strong front-foot player in the early years. I was never able to get runs on the back-foot which was exploited by good bowlers. I had to work a lot on fetching runs on the back-foot before my coach, Shailesh Pandya, helped me with my grip. I used to have a top handled grip which I changed to a bit lower and that has helped me grow as a strong back-foot player. Also, the back-and-across technique helps me see the ball early enough to play the pull and the cut shots.

You have been consistently picking up wickets with your offspinners. Do you consider yourself an allrounder or predominantly a batsman who can bowl a few overs? Is this an area you are working on improving?
I certainly consider myself a genuine allrounder. In fact, in my early days my fellow cricketers used to call me a bowler who can bat. I have been consistently taking wickets at every level. I am working on consistency with both, but there is always a room for improvement.It seems you really did not have much of a problem switching from the cement based wickets in Texas to the turf wickets in LA where most of the other batsmen struggled. What are the adjustments you had to make?What helped me most was that I had experience playing on turf wickets back in India before playing here in the US on the concrete wickets. However, I have played on these concrete wickets for quite a while and was used to playing on them and hence I had to revert to a technique which helped me succeed on turf wickets. As everyone knows, the ball comes onto the bat really well on concrete wickets where poor foot-work does not make much of a difference if your hands are coordinating well with your eyes. The turf wickets are very different where you have to wait for the ball to play the shots, plus you have to adjust your footwork with quality fast bowlers who can cut and swing the ball both ways. You need to have really good footwork to play on turf wickets and have to be selective in shot making.You have played a pretty high level of cricket in India before migrating to the US. Where were you playing there and in what way are those conditions different from what you play here?I have played Under-16, Under-19, and Under-22 for Gujarat. I have played with a lot of first-class cricketers all over and especially in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where I have played all my life. I have also been a first-vlass cricketer in India playing the All-India University tournament representing Gujarat. We used to play on matting or turf which is much different than astroturf on concrete. I would admit that it is rather a batsman’s paradise on concrete, whereas it was not easy on the turf or matting where bowlers can exploit the conditions and make you work really hard for runs.Congratulations on making the US National team for the ICC tournament in Toronto. Did you expect a National call-up so early considering that it hasn’t been long since you have been playing cricket in the United States?
Thank you. I am really happy to be named as one of the few National players out of thousands. The biggest reason for my selection in the US team is my performance over the past Memorial weekend in LA where I got the Best Batsman of the Western Conference award. Although, I wasn’t convinced that this was enough to have cemented a berth in the National side as I have not been here for very long, I believe I have had considerable performances throughout the Houston/Texas/Central West Regional tournaments, and I am very fortunate to have been chosen.How are you preparing for the ICC tournament in Toronto? Are there any goals you aim to achieve there? I do a 45-minute cardio every day. I aim to strengthen my legs and not get tired. I practice three days a week. My main focus is to bat as long as possible without getting tired and even after getting tired to not throw my wicket away. I am on a special and a very healthy diet plan as well. The biggest goal I have is to help, in each and every way I can, to win the Championship for my team. I believe in the phrase cricket is a TEAM game and I will do anything and everything my captain and my team needs me to do.Twenty20 cricket is taking off in a big way around the world. Having recently played a major part in your club’s victory in the Houston Twenty20 championships do you think this form of cricket is best suited to popularizing the sports in the United States? Yes, most certainly. We know that people here do not have eight hours to spend on a sport which they do not know or understand. Diversification is definitely needed where we can attract more viewers and fans. I certainly think Twenty20 cricket along with the six-a-side can create a lot of interest amongst the locals.If you were to name on youth cricketers to watch out for in the near future from your region, which would that be?Chirag BhaktaThis article first appeared in www.3rdUmpire.com

How the day turned out
It’s nice to pick up two wickets. It was quite a close decision on the third. Overall, I’m quite happy with that.What Australia would have done if they won the toss
I haven’t talked to Ricky [Ponting], but normal practice would be to bat, so that we can bowl last. Whether that was going to be his intention, I’m not sure. But as conditions turned out, having three quick bowlers right from the outset was a favourable move.About the bad light
The light was pretty uneven all day. I think when you turn on the lights, it improves the conditions, but here it created more complications, because behind the bowler’s arm, it became a [great] deal darker. They [the umpires] made the right decision about offering the light.What the pitch is like
No matter where you go, you will always see something on offer to the new ball. I thought once the rain had intervened, there was some moisture on the wicket, [but] it settled down reasonably quickly.On Brett Lee
There’s been a temptation to play Brett Lee for the whole series, but as we’ve said all along, the three quick bowlers we have in the side have done a fantastic job.The thinking behind picking Nathan Hauritz ahead of Cameron White
Nathan probably is a better spinner. Cameron is a batsman-bowler. Nathan is a far more experienced spin bowler. If we were to go to a line-up with two spinners, he was going to be our second choice after Shane Warne.On McGrath and Kasprowicz’s illness
They’ve passed it on to somebody else now, so there you are [chuckle]. We’ll wait and see who comes down with it next.

Four months ago, while England were rampaging to victory in the Caribbean, it was tempting to be a little bit blasé about the prospects for the return series – the so-called highlight of the English summer – that begins at Lord’s tomorrow morning. West Indies were a disorganised rabble, so the general consensus went, while England were soaring higher and higher, as their emphatic victories against New Zealand amply demonstrated. A rout was the only foreseeable outcome.There’ll be no such complacency now. The juggernaut that was England’s Test form has been shunted aside by a one-day campaign of Reliant Robin standards, and it is West Indies who have sped to a psychological advantage, particularly at Lord’s where, in the most compelling match of the recent NatWest Series, Chris Gayle’s rumbustuous century dumped England out of their own one-day party. When set against a backdrop of English defeat, Brian Lara’s majestic world record in Antigua reads less as a footnote, more as a premonition.There is an uncomfortable irony about the timing of yesterday’s announcement, that England had been catapulted into second place on the ICC World Test Championship table. Injury and uncertainty – two unwelcome ingredients that were noticeably lacking during England’s run of six wins in seven Tests – have taken hold since the New Zealand series, and whatever their achievements in the past year, tomorrow’s match promises to be more finely balanced than even the most pessimistic of England supporters could have envisaged.What is more, it could be a much-changed side that takes the field on Thursday. Personnel-wise, it should look and feel pretty similar to the side that wrapped up the series in Barbados, but as England have found to their cost in one-day cricket, the question of balance is critical to the team’s success. In that respect, Andrew Flintoff’s ongoing ankle trouble is a grievous blow.Flintoff, who was first rested entirely and then recalled as a specialist batsman for the NatWest Series, has had to receive a cortisone injection after experiencing pain while bowling during Lancashire’s Twenty20 Cup match against Yorkshire last week. Never mind the long-term ramifications and the prospect of surgery; in the short term, his removal from the attack places an extra burden on Steve Harmison, who is not only England’s best source of wickets, but the only other bowler who can be relied on to stem the run-flow.If he continues to reap the wickets as he has been doing this year, Harmison will almost certainly finish this match as the leading bowler in the world, according to the PwC ratings. But the last thing England need is to over-burden their one remaining world-class performer. Though the talent is undeniable, Harmison has yet to demonstrate that his new-found fitness and stamina is anything but a (hugely impressive) flash in the pan, and England would do well to heed the lesson they learnt with Flintoff in 2002. On that occasion, they were so overjoyed to have unearthed a genuine allrounder, that they bowled the poor guy all the way into the operating theatre.But it is not just the bowling that will give England’s selectors one or two causes for concern. In the Caribbean, England owed everything to their troika of middle-order veterans; Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe. But Hussain has since retired, to be replaced at No. 4 by the off-colour Michael Vaughan, while Butcher’s remarkable run of 42 consecutive matches will come to an end after he suffered whiplash during a car-crash in South London and was later ruled out of the starting XI. Ironically, he was on his way to the physio for treatment on the thigh strain that forced him out of last week’s MCC fixture, and he will make way for Robert Key, whose stunning early-season form in the Championship will be a distant memory after a disappointing one-day series.That leaves Thorpe, England’s Man of the Match at Trent Bridge, who did at least play in that MCC fixture at Arundel. But since his retirement from the one-day game, he has not exactly been overburdened with match practice, and England will be desperately hoping that he has not gone off the boil in the interim. It is one of the perils of the modern-day English summer, with its midseason emphasis on limited-overs cricket, that the touring sides are invariably better prepared than the home players.

For West Indies, that preparation was capped nicely against Sri Lanka A last week, when runs and wickets were to the fore in a concerted team performance. The most pleasing aspect of that match was the return to form of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, West Indies’ second-most experienced batsman behind Lara, whose poor returns in the Caribbean were a significant factor in the ease with which England’s bowlers bossed the series.He may possess the crabbiest technique in world cricket, but Chanderpaul is also one of the most consistently under-rated batsmen in the game, equally adept at attrition or explosive strokeplay. With Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan, he completes a middle-order that, given a nice sun-baked batting track and an over-stretched attack, could yet cash in as this series progresses. It is one of the mysteries of the modern age how a batting order of such potency could be rolled over in double figures in four of their last eight Tests against England. Don’t expect the habit to continue.And then there is the West Indian bowling attack – perhaps the most diminutive ever to reach these shores, but not to be underestimated at any cost. Tino Best found that the constraints of the NatWest Series did not suit his flamboyant approach, but he still found enough pace and penetration to remind Marcus Trescothick of his struggles against the new ball in the Caribbean. It will be particularly instructive, both for this summer and the series to come, to see how Andrew Strauss fares against the 90mph delivery.With Fidel Edwards slinging his way into town for the Tests, and Jermaine Lawson back in favour after remedial work on his bowling action, West Indies have the sort of cutting edge that New Zealand, through the injury to Shane Bond, were palpably lacking earlier in the summer. Add to that mix Pedro Collins and his unsettling left-arm line, and it is clear that England’s supremacy is not to taken for granted.It must be a good 50 years since England last began a series against West Indies as the overwhelming favourites. It is a position of unfamiliar responsibility, and the onus is on them to live up to their billing.England (probable): 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Andrew Strauss, 3 Robert Key, 4 Michael Vaughan (capt), 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Simon Jones, 10 Matthew Hoggard, 11 Steve Harmison.West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Devon Smith, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Brian Lara (capt), 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Dwayne Smith, 7 Ridley Jacobs (wk), 8 Tino Best, 9 Jermaine Lawson, 10 Pedro Collins, 11 Fidel Edwards.

When Andy Flower and Henry Olonga protested the “death of democracy”, the Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak insisted that sport and politics could not mix. In the latest edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly Tom de Castella asks him whyHeath Streak can have no illusions about the dreadful things that happen in Zimbabwe. Last August his father was jailed because he refused to give up his farm to Robert Mugabe’s licensed thugs. But his refusal to make a political statement during the World Cup seemed to put him on the government’s side. Despite his own intimate understanding of widespread hunger and repression, his silence appeared to imply criticism of the brave black-armband protests of team-mates Andy Flower and Henry Olonga. Streak became known among opposition supporters as the Anti-Flower.

His reputation for having deserted the side of the angels started before the World Cup when Streak sounded strident and uncompromising. Here was a man who spoke only of sporting performance while all around him people were trying to survive the state-sponsored famine of Mugabe. His defence was lame. “I believe sport and politics can’t mix,” he said. “The security of teams coming here is perfect. I think things should go ahead.”In retrospect it might seem not to have been worth it. During the World Cup the team, distracted by the controversy, suffered. Despite making the Super Six stage, partly due to England’s refusal to play in Harare, the team was thrashed by Kenya and beat only Namibia and Holland. Now Streak, at 29, has to oversee the rebuilding of a side hit by four retirements of key players, starting with Flower and Olonga.On the two-Test tour to England he leads a team whose vice-captain is a promising 19-year-old wicketkeeper, Tatenda Taibu. The only team members whose Test qualifications are not in doubt are Streak himself and Grant Flower. As a fast bowler of great strength and stamina, Streak has taken 180 wickets at 26.98 in 51 Tests and averaged 21.01 with the bat. At Lord’s on May 22 he leads his side for the 14th time in Tests. But he is now considered less as a hero and more as an enigma in international cricket.A big, physically imposing man with dark smouldering eyes, Streak belongs to the strong, silent school of leadership. He is ill at ease under interrogation by journalists and it is easy to see how he became a media bogeyman. “Never complain, never explain” would summarise his public relations technique. He obviously prefers the new ball to do his talking for him.When we met in Bulawayo, his hometown, he was sitting at a cafe table nursing a cup of tea being unrepentant about his behaviour during the World Cup. “No one lives in an ideal world,” he said. “We’re in a world where there’s terrorism and a war in the Middle East. At the end of the day sport is a job like any other, the players are just trying to make a living.”Flower used similar language to reach exactly the opposite conclusion when we spoke a couple of days later. “It’s a bit of a cop-out to say `I can’t get involved in politics because I’m a cricketer’. What about a businessman, what about a bricklayer? That argument is flawed. Only in an ideal world do sport and politics not mix.”But Streak’s own daily life is inseparable from the consequences of politics. We had been talking for 10 minutes when a man approached our table with two small sacks. A conversation ensued in Ndebele, the local African language, which ended with Streak handing over money in exchange for the unlabelled sacks. “Sorry about that,” he said. “It’s so hard to get bread these days. I’m lucky to know people who can.”

Streak insists he is not insensitive to the pain people are suffering but his public position is uncompromising. He believes that sportsmen stand above politics and have a separate responsibility for a higher national ethos. “I think, as far as we can, sports people must realise that we’re ambassadors for our country and we’ve got to try and keep to sport as our topic,” he said. In what appeared to be a gentle dig at Flower and Olonga he added: “I encouraged the team to do that so that they could try and focus and give themselves their best chance in the tournament.”But not many personalities are as simple as they look, and it would be a serious error to think that Streak is motivated by racism. He grew up in Matabeleland, in the south-west of the country, and feels a strong kinship to the area’s Ndebele tribe who make up about a fifth of Zimbabwe’s population and have suffered more than any other ethnic group during Mugabe’s 23-year rule. I had watched Zimbabwe’s opening Super Six game against New Zealand with the squad of Bulawayo’s biggest football team, Highlanders, and was surprised to hear the esteem Streak is held in by Bulawayo’s Africans. As Streak put on an exhibition of ferocious hitting, scoring 72 off 84 balls, one partisan spectator said: “Heath is a great man, a real Ndebele, he learnt Ndebele before he could speak English. You would never know he was white the way he speaks it.”When I told Streak he leaked a little passion. “I grew up in a farming area and used to play with Ndebele kids, so my first language as a youngster was Ndebele and I’ve spoken it ever since. I think it’s a pity more Europeans here don’t speak the language. We learn how to speak Afrikaans and French but I think it would be of greater benefit to speak African languages. You have a much greater understanding not only of what people are about but also their culture.” He is a Matabele and a Bulawayo boy and proud of it.His cultural sensitivities make his stubborn political position all the more perplexing. When the subject turns to the 40 democracy campaigners arrested at the Holland match, who were later locked up in a cell measuring 15 feet by eight with no functioning toilet, Streak is ambivalent. He described the incident as “disappointing” and then repeated his familiar mantra. “To use a sporting stage to make political statements is a little bit unfair on the sport and also on the people who go there for an enjoyable day and are impartial to what’s going on.” It is his denial of any political context which gives rise to the “Mugabe apologist” tag, however unfair.Streak himself declares that the World Cup was a “fantastic” tournament that will accelerate the development of cricket in Africa. He regrets the cancelled game with England. “We were disappointed in a cricketing sense when England decided not to come,” he said. “We’ve always had a good rivalry in the past here; we’ve beaten them and they’ve beaten us. But I do sympathise with Nasser Hussain who was already under a lot of pressure without this boycott issue.”Pressed on England’s safety in Harare he sighs. “I always say `my crystal ball went in for a service so I can’t really tell” – a sign perhaps that his certainty before the World Cup was dented slightly by the demonstrations that did take place, together with the knowledge that an England protest would have dwarfed the others. Indeed opposition supporters have said that weeks of detailed planning had gone into preparation for a “stunning” demonstration for the England match. They will not reveal the plan. “We might use it another time, so we’re not telling anyone,” said one of them.If the past was lined with potential pitfalls, the future looks no less testing. With Flower and Olonga joined on the international retirement list by Guy Whittall and Alistair Campbell Zimbabwe look fragile. Unless young players, such as Tatenda Taibu, and the medium-fast bowler Andy Blignaut quickly establish themselves as replacements the English tour could become a rout. Streak, who made his debut against Pakistan 10 years ago, says Zimbabwe are in a “rebuilding phase”.Zimbabwe did restore some pride by defeating Kenya and Sri Lanka to reach the Sharjah Cup final in April and, playing as a national team against England, Zimbabwe can perform well above themselves, as they did in a well-fought, rain-spoiled draw at Trent Bridge in 2000 after losing by an innings and 209 runs at Lord’s. (Streak took nine wickets at 20.22 in the series.) But the youngsters will have to step up fast if Zimbabwe’s “rebuilding phase” is not to turn into a bereavement phase.Click here to subscribe to Wisden Cricket MonthlyThe June 2003 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly is on sale at all good newsagents in the UK and Ireland, priced £3.25.