Pakistan skipper Waqar Younis admitted that rapid improvements were necessary before their high-profile showdown with India at the weekend.Pakistan completed a comfortable 97 run victory over the Netherlands but a lacklustre performance by the middle order and an unacceptable 40 sundries took the gloss off their win.”We should have got 300 on that wicket,” Waqar said. “And then we didn’t bowl that well – giving away so many easy runs was a worry.”Perhaps we were a little lethargic playing against a weaker side but there are a few things we’ve got to improve on and talk about in the next few days.”The form of star batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq, who has scored just 10 runs in four innings, is a serious concern.”He is one our best players and has performed brilliantly for Pakistan in the past,” said Waqar.”Hopefully, he will get some more runs in the next game against India.”But Waqar paid tribute to Wasim Akram who became the first bowler to take 500 ODI wickets.”I just want to salute him. It is an outstanding achievement for him and for Pakistani cricket. I don’t see anybody else bettering his achievement,” said Waqar.

After a tie in their last meeting the stage was set for an explosive climax to the Metropolitan cup in Sunday’s final between La Dehesa and Las Condes.Las Condes was hoping to repeat last year victory, but La Dehesa had been unbeaten all season and had other ideas.Unfortunately for Las Condes, the die was cast in La Dehesa’s favour before a ball had been bowled with only 9 players able to play on the day.But Las Condes captain Marriott won the toss and decided to bat, hoping the old adage of putting some numbers on the board first would work in his favour.However, La Dehesa’s bowlers made life difficult for the Las Condes openers. Wily spinner Adams frustrated Wollocombe into a rash shot in the fifth over that was easily caught by Harvey.McGovern’s fast bowling from the other end kept the batsmen off their guard and he was rewarded for his efforts the next over with the wicket of Hickman who missed a straight delivery.At 12 for 2 it looked as if lunch would be served sooner than expected, but Paul ‘Wonder Boy’ Hollis had other ideas and he kept Las Condes’ hopes alive with a solid innings of 71 that included several well timed drives for four.At the other end Las Condes batsmen came and went without ever settling in long enough to provide Hollis with any real support. Walker was out LBW to a quick straight delivery from Khaalid, and Messner was out in the same fashion.Mouton attempted to hook a short delivery from Dowling and deflected the ball onto his chin. Not to be kept off the pitch, however, Mouton was back after receiving medical attention and scored 13 before being caught & bowled by McGovern.That left Las Condes capitan Marriott and Dawson to hold up the Las Condes tail, but Dawson was stumped by some quick thinking from La Dehesa keeper Larsson and Marriott was clean bowled by Brink going for a slog.After lunch, La Dehesa was set the modest target of 153 to win. Messner opened the bowling with a head of steam and quickly earned the wicket of opener Dowling in the second over with a fast delivery that kept low.But La Dehesa capitan Phillips was solid as a rock expect for several LBW decisions that luckily for La Dehesa went his way. Phillips was well supported by first drop McGovern, who showed once again that he is truly a batsman of class.Together they put on a slow-scoring partnership of 34, before McGovern was bowled by Mouton on 19 in the 17th over. That brought Khaalid Mooradd to the crease. The South African native needed hardly an over before he had his eye in and started dispatching the Las Condes bowlers all over the ground.Khaalid has not had much of a chance to show his talent after arriving in Chile late this season, but he certainly made up for lost time on Sunday with a splendid innings of 64 including one glorious six over the bowler’s head and almost through the clubhouse windows.Khaalid was given out LBW to Messner but by then La Dehesa only needed one run to win in the 39th over, and Phillips wasted no time scoring the winning run off Mouton and ending his captain’s innings of 59 not out.When it was all said and done, La Dehesa’s strong bowling attack was able to keep Las Condes from putting together a truly competitive total, and with La Dehesa’s deep batting line-up, the outcome of the game was never really in doubt.After team pictures, and a pause to super-glue the bat back on the trophy, Marriott presented Phillips with the Metropolitan Cup, which will remain in his safe hands, until next year at least.The Metropolitan Cup final caps an extraordinary season for Chilean cricket that included a second place finish in the South American Championships held in Argentina, and a developing youth cricket program.The 2003-2004 season is sure to showcase the talents of Chile’s emerging young cricketers as well as another exciting Metropolitan Cup.¡Viva Chile!

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.

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.

Frizzell County Championship Division OneKent v Lancashire, Canterbury
Even though Kent and Lancashire have both yet to win this season, Lancashire start this tie as favourites, considering their better form in the Championship. Four draws out of four may not sound like an electrifying start, but all those games were disrupted by bad weather with Lancashire in a strong position, and as long as the skies stay blue, a win can’t be too far away. Kent have also had their fair share of rain, but they sit only three points off the bottom and desperately need a win for morale as well as points. Their captain, David Fulton, makes his first Championship appearance of the season after recovering from an eye operation which, at one stage, was feared could end his career. However, Amjad Khan (shin) and Min Patel (back) remain sidelined. Lancashire are boosted by the presence of Andrew Flintoff, who has recovered from a shoulder problem sufficiently to play – if only as a batsman. James Anderson is unavailable because of England commitments, and Kyle Hogg continues his recovery from a calf injury.

Nottinghamshire v Essex, Nottingham
Nottinghamshire and Essex slipped to within two points of each other after heavy defeats in the last round, so the incentive for victory will be even bigger than usual. Notts do have a victory to their name this season – against Warwickshire early on – while Essex, with four draws out of five, have yet to record a victory. Notts will be boosted by the presence of both Chris Cairns and Stuart MacGill, who will play together for the first time. Cairns returns to the side after missing the last two matches on international duty, but Chris Read is absent with a broken thumb. Essex are likely to be without Ronnie Irani, their captain, who is struggling with a knee injury, while Nasser Hussain is away with England and John Stephenson is out with a twisted ankle.Surrey v Sussex, The Oval
It’s first against third at The Oval as Sussex look to keep in touch with Surrey, the leaders – but it’s not going to be easy. Surrey demolished Essex in the last round with impressive allround displays from Martin Bicknell and Jonathan Batty, and after their win over Somerset in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy, they will be hard to stop. Unsurprisingly, they have named an unchanged squad, with Alec Stewart and Mark Butcher in Durham for the second Test and Alex Tudor continuing his recovery from a knee operation. Rikki Clarke, today named in England’s ODI squad, faces the prospect of being 12th man again. For Sussex, Tony Cottey is doubtful after missing the C&G Trophy defeat by Middlesex because of a back problem, while Kevin Innes, who scored a first-innings century against Nottinghamshire last week before making way for James Kirtley, looks set to keep his place for the whole match this time.Frizzell County Championship Division TwoDerbyshire v Worcestershire, Derby
Only two points separate Derbyshire (4th) and Worcestershire (5th), but the momentum is with Worcestershire, who pulled off a spectacular win against high-flying Gloucestershire last week, while Derbyshire fell to the perennial whipping-boys Durham. Mohammad Ali and Lian Wharton are added to the Derbyshire squad after sitting out the C&G Trophy fourth-round victory over Glamorgan, with Ali expected to reclaim a place in the side. Whether Wharton, a left-arm spinner, makes the final XI depends on the state of the Derby pitch, although he and Tom Lungley are the most likely of the 13-man squad to miss out. For Worcestershire, David Leatherdale is overlooked for a third successive Championship game despite scoring 80 and taking 5 for 36 in his two most recent one-day outings. He is replaced by Anurag Singh, the only change to the team that beat Yorkshire by 67 runs in the C&G Trophy fourth round.Northamptonshire v Glamorgan, Northampton
If Northants could choose any side to play to claw themselves away from the bottom spot, then Glamorgan would probably be the one. Glamorgan have lost two out of their last three Championship matches, and like Northants, are floundering at the wrong at the end of the table and have yet to win. Kepler Wessels, the Northants coach, recalls Mark Powell, Carl Greenidge and Monty Panesar, with Michael Cawdron and Tony Penberthy making way. Meanwhile, Glamorgan’s coach John Derrick is sweating on the fitness of David Hemp and Adrian Dale, who are both unwell. David Harrison, who rarely features in the one-day team, returns to four-day action, while Dean Cosker is expected to play as a second spinner alongside Robert Croft.Yorkshire v Durham, Leeds
Yorkshire will fancy their chances of getting their season back on track when they take on Durham at Headingley. An early-season victory against Northants remains Yorkshire’s only win of the season, and Somerset and Gloucestershire are beginning to pull away at the top. However, they will be bolstered by Darren Gough’s third Championship appearance of the season following his recovery from a hamstring injury. Meanwhile, Durham can take some encouragement from their first Championship win for two years, against Derbyshire last week, but injuries to Martin Love (broken thumb) and Vince Wells (back), along with the effects of a dispiriting drubbing against Lancashire in the C&G Trophy, could spell another defeat.

The Crusaders showed the Austrian Cricket Association little mercy as they punished the ACA attack with a glorious exhibition of strokeplay. Matthew Harrison and Tim Welsford shared an opening stand of 132, before Welsford departed for 72, and Harrison went on to reach his century in 104 minutes off 83 balls, eventually retiring on 113, sharing in a rapid partnership worth 87 for the fourth wicket with Ian Hewitt. Hewitt went on to eclipse him, plundering his 102* off 63 balls in a mere 70 minutes, as the Crusaders scored 332-4 in 37 overs. Earlier in the innings there had been a slight wobble as Wasif Mohammed picked up three wickets in five balls, removing Welsford, McDonald and David Hussey, the last of whom was stumped off a wide, thanks to some fast glovework by Amir Naeem.The batting performance was possibly surpassed by the bowling performance, with Hewitt bowling impressively and returning with 4-19 off 8 overs, the first blow being struck in the first over, with Tim Simpson departing for a duck. Erwin Grasinger batted patiently for 17 – occupying the crease for an hour in the process as wickets fell at the other end. Babar Nadeem, playing for the ACA side for the first time struck eight fours in a knock of 37, the highest score in the ACA innings, and after brief resistence from Thomas Grabetz and Paul Hudson, the ACA side were finally all out for 103.The Crusaders left Austria undefeated, with two wins to start their tour with, and moved onto Amsterdam, where their next opponents are due to be a VRA Invitation XI and SGS, both matches being played side by side on the same day (24th June) in Amstelveen, before games against the Netherlands and Netherlands Under 23 on the following days. The ACA would once again like to express their thanks to the Crusaders for the spirit in which they played the games and for their help in trying to encourage cricket in Austria.

March:
Buckinghamshire 263 & 147-7 (RP Lane 51) Cambridgeshire 170 (Ajaz Akhtar 73)Exmouth:
Devon 368 & 151-4 (RI Dawson 96), Dorset 250 (S Rintoul 121)Bishop’s Stortford:
Hertfordshire 74 & 219 (S White 78, T Smith 5-46), Suffolk 263 & 31-1
Suffolk won by nine wickets
Suffolk 22 points, Hertfordshire 4 pointsManor Park:
Staffordshire 451-4d & 78-3 v Norfok 306-6d (SC Goldsmith 118, CJ Rogers 61)Abergavenny:
Cheshire 357 & 63-4, Wales 283.Westbury:
Berkshire 325-5d & 93-1 (P J Pritchard 51*), v Wiltshire 222 (RJ Rowe 71, J C Morris 5-30)Jesmond:
Northumberland 233 & 213 (AT Heather 56, B Parker 53) v Cumberland 294 (A Metcalfe 172)

The Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Sport, the Honorable Terry Mackenroth, will launch Queensland Cricket’s latest coaching innovation tomorrow in the Ian Healy Room at QCHQ.”1st Innings” is a CD-Rom based coaching resource that will be distributed to all schools in Queensland to assist teachers and students with learning more about cricket and how to play the game.The free CD-Rom was created by Queensland Cricket’s Game Development Department in conjunction with Go-Print and Cutting Edge Interactive.The interactive CD-Rom features segments by current Queensland and Australian players including Jimmy Maher, Andrew Symonds, Ashley Noffke, Nathan Hauritz, Wade Seccombe, James Hopes, Brendan Nash, Australia women’s youth player Belinda Matheson and Konica Queensland Fire coach Joanne Broadbent.The CD-Rom is a first for cricket in Australia.

A silver tray, dating from England’s tour of Australia in 1882-83, is expected to fetch up to A$300,000 (£82,000) at an auction in New South Wales on October 19. The tray, a gift of thanks from the England team to Melbourne Cricket Club’s president, Sir William Clarke, is believed to have been used to carry the newly-presented Ashes urn and its velvet bag before their return to England with Ivo Bligh’s victorious England team.Australians have repeatedly been disappointed at their inability to persuade MCC to relinquish the Ashes, which are housed in the museum at Lord’s. Steve Waugh and John Howard, the Australian prime minister, are among the big names to have called for the urn to return Down Under, but Lord’s considers them too fragile to make the journey. But the discovery of this artefact may help to placate the Aussies."The tray has to end up in Australia," said Tom Thompson, of Lawson Menzies, the auctioneer, "because there are a lot of people out there who are disappointed with what can’t be recovered from Lord’s." But, he added, there was no guarantee that that would be the case. "The tray does not carry a heritage order," he said, "because none of the historians knew it even existed."The tray is raised on four spherical feet, weighs 1.48kg, and was manufactured by Martin & Hall in Sheffield in 1880. It bears the engraved signatures of eight members of England’s team — Bligh, Walter Read, Allan Steel, Charles and George Studd, Edmund Tylecote, Charles Leslie and George Vernon — and carries the inscription: "Presented to Sir William & Lady Clarke as a tribute of friendship & esteem by the English cricketers in Australia 1882-1883".At The Oval in 1882, Australia beat England on home soil for the first time; a seismic event that led the Sporting Times to publish a mock obituary of English cricket, which stated that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia".

If Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh were unable to make an impression on the first day of the Irani Trophy match at Chennai, their unassuming understudy Ramesh Powar certainly showed the way today. An unlikely hero if there ever was one, Powar took 4 for 61, including the wicket of Sourav Ganguly for a fourth-ball duck, to give the Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai the upper hand against the Rest of India.A key member of the Ranji-winning squad, Powar is one of the few cricketers in Mumbai who plays purely as a professional. Not for him the soft option of getting a job simply because of cricket. During the English summer, he plies his trade in the Minor Counties. His brother Kiran is also a cricketer, and bats in the top order for Goa.”It’s a really good feeling,” said Powar after putting Mumbai in a strong position. “I tried my best and the wicket had a bit of bounce in it and I was successful. All I wanted to do was put the ball in the right places and be consistent. That helped a lot.” Going into the third day with a lead of 106, Mumbai have a chance to close the door on the Rest.Powar was ruthless in his interrogation of the batsmen’s off stump, and his perseverance worked wonders. He picked up vital wickets and forced the Rest of India team onto the back foot. Undoubtedly, though, it was Rahul Dravid’s wicket that gave him most pleasure. “Dravid’s wicket was the crucial one,” admitted Powar. “He’s the kind of guy who can bat all day if he gets set.” Dravid had certainly been in fine touch, defending stoutly and essaying some bold drives, before he flicked Powar to Sachin Tendulkar at midwicket.Powar’s early success meant that Tendulkar persisted with him – one spell, in which he took 4 for 39, was as long as 20 overs. “It’s not only because I started off well,” said Powar. “We plan everything well in advance and I knew I was likely to bowl a long spell.”This performance reminds the national selectors, who are watching the game at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, that they have another spin option up their sleeves. Powar himself is happy just to do well every time he plays: “I’m not the kind of person who thinks too far into the future. I don’t think too much about making it to the national side. I’m the sort of person who likes to enjoy playing the game, one day at a time. I like to give my best and let the performances talk, not my mouth.”The fact that Mumbai have come back from being down in the dumps on the first day does not surprise Powar. “This is how we’ve played our cricket all season. The last year in the Ranji Trophy has really helped strengthen our mental make-up. The coach, Chandrakant Pandit, and seniors like Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar speak to us a lot about playing in big games. They put us at ease and made us comfortable, and we knew what we had to do even when things were not going too well for us.”People who watched Mumbai in their march to victory in the last Ranji season always spoke highly of Powar. He gave the coach a solid batting option floating in the lower order, and bowled to fields set for him. It’s obvious that he’s an honest pro, a toiler rather than a flash entertainer. At the end of the day, most captains would tell you they would love to have one of his kind in their team.