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India will not risk easing up when they play Kenya in their first match of the World Cup Super Six under the Newlands lights here on Friday.The Indians remember only too well the shock 70-run defeat against the unfancied Africans when they batted second under lights during a triangular series match in Port Elizabeth last season.”We’re preparing exactly the same way we have for our other games. It’s an important match,” coach John Wright said today.India go into the Super Six phase trailing the Kenyans, who carry forward 10 points from the first round after their win by forfeit against New Zealand and their surprise victory over Sri Lanka in Nairobi.India take eight points into the next round, which places them third behind unbeaten Australia (12) and Kenya.Kenya’s win against India in Port Elizabeth was something of an anomaly as it was sandwiched between a 10-wicket trouncing of the Kenyans five days earlier, when the Africans were bowled out for 90, and a 186-run win a week later.It was enough, though, to provide Wright with ammunition when he warns his players of complacency after the emotional high of their triumph against Pakistan last Saturday.The Indians had a two-day break following the Pakistan match but were back in full work mode at the nets at Newlands today.”It’s a very big opportunity,” he said of India’s chance to reach the semi-finals. “But we have to guard against complacency. The players have to be hungry to win their next match and they must respect the opposition.”Kenya, meanwhile, confirmed the fears of neutrals that they could be on the wrong end of some one-sided matches in the Super Six when they lost by 142 runs in their final Group B match against the West Indies in Kimberley on Tuesday.The Kenyans travelled to Cape Town today and will only have one full session in the nets on tomorrow morning.If the Africans are to be a threat to an in-form Indian team they will probably need to bat first and post a reasonable total, then try to put the Indians under pressure.Opening batsmen Ravindu Shah and Kennedy Otieno both made half-centuries in the upset in Port Elizabeth and will need to get their side off to a good start, while classy batsman Steve Tikolo, the Kenyan captain, will be seeking to find better form than he has so far shown in the tournament.Wright said he was not concerned about any possible changes in conditions under floodlights. “Whether we bat first or second, we have the batting to do the job,” he said.Meanwhile, the Indians were relieved to learn that opener Virender Sehwag had not fractured the index finger of his right hand after being injured during fielding practice today.The swelling, however, persists and team official Amrit Mathur said a decision on whether Sehwag will play on Kenya will be taken on Friday morning.Teams (from):India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Mongia, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Anil Kumble, Harhajan Singh, Parthiv Patel, Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay BangarKenya: Steve Tikolo (captain), Maurice Odumbe, Ravindu Shah, Asif Karim, Alpesh Vadher, Hitesh Modi, Joseph Angara, Collins Obuya, David Obuya, Kennedy Otieno, Thomas Odoyo, Martin Suji, Tony Suji, Peter Ongondo, Brijal Patel

Hashan Tillakaratne, Sri Lanka’s recently appointed test captain, has announced his retirement from One-Day International cricket.Tillakaratne, who turns 36 in July, announced his retirement in a written statement, said: “I wish to announce my retirement from one-day cricket, with immediate effect.””I will not be there for the 2007 World Cup and this is the best time to groom youngsters. This will allow me to concentrate more on test cricket'” he said.”I wish to thank my immediate past captain Sanath Jayasuriya and my teammates for supporting me during my return to the one-day side.””I wish the new one-day captain Marvan Atapattu the very best in taking the side to the very top of international cricket once again.””I shall give my best to the Sri Lanka team in Test cricket and I look forward to the challenge of the future.”Tillakaratne, recalled to the one-day side in November last year after a three-year absence, scored 3789 runs at 29.60 in 200 matches.

SYDNEY, March 25 AAP – Australia’s unbeaten run on the way to retaining the cricket World Cup has extended its lead at the top of the ICC’s one-day championship table.At the end of 2002, Australia’s rating was only five points higher than its closest rival South Africa but an unprecedented run of 17 consecutive victories has opened up a record gap of 13 points.It’s rating of 136 – four more than it was at the start of the tournament – is the highest ranking recorded since the International Cricket Council launched the championship six months ago.As well as taking home the World Cup trophy, Australia also retains the ICC Championship Shield that Ricky Ponting first collected at the Sydney Cricket Ground last December.India was unable to match Australia at the Wanderers but its progress to the final helped boost its rating by four, pulling Sourav Ganguly’s team away from West Indies, New Zealand and England into clear fifth place.With Pakistan (third) and Sri Lanka (fourth) both losing ground, India has moved to within striking distance of third place.Kenya was the biggest beneficiary from the tournament, increasing its rating by 10.With victories over Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, the Kenyans have open up a gap of 24 ratings points from Bangladesh at the bottom of the table.

Sanath Jayasuriya will play in Sri Lanka’s crucial match against New Zealandon Tuesday but team officials are concerned over his health after his fourthbout of tonsillitis in three months.Jayasuriya stayed in bed and missed practice on Sunday after sufferingwhat manager Ajit Jayasekera described as “a severe fever”. He coughed andspluttered his way through net practice on Monday.Jayasuriya had been plagued with tonsillitis during the Super Six stage ofthe 2003 World Cup and had been laid low again during last month’s Sharjah Cup.”We are concerned by the number of times that he has been laid low by tonsillitis,” said Jayasekara. “This is the fourth time since the start ofthe World Cup.”Sri Lanka are expected to make two changes to their lineup for the New Zealand game, with Tillakaratne Dilshan replacing Russel Arnold in the middle order and Upul Chandana getting a look in as an allrounder.

English cricket needs television but television needs England to do better. In the July issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly John Stern examines the delicate business of rights, prices and programmingWhen Channel 4 said they were not showing highlights of the 2002-03 Ashes series there was sufficient viewer backlash to make them change their minds. At around the same time last autumn WCM revealed that the start time for Test cricket in England was to be brought forward to 10.45am – at the request of C4. That start time may yet get earlier.When it was clear that the World Cup would have no presence – even in highlight form – on terrestrial television, C4 received around a dozen complaints. When they went off air as scheduled at 6pm on the second day of the first Test against Zimbabwe, there was some mild discontent. Yet when C4 stayed with the cricket the following day until the finish at around 7.40pm, they received more than 100 complaints about the rescheduling of a documentary on Sir Edmund Hillary.So who calls the shots? Who wears the trousers in this increasingly important marriage between cricket and TV? Is it the broadcasters? The ECB? The players? Or the viewers?English cricket first got into bed with C4 in 1999 in a three-year deal that took Test cricket away from the BBC for the first time. This was a joint deal between C4 and Sky, who had the rights to show one Test a summer for the first time plus the increasing volume of England’s one-day cricket. This deal was made possible only by government legislation (helped by ECB lobbying) to remove Test cricket from what are termed the "crown jewels" of televised sport, which include the FA Cup final and Wimbledon tennis. These events must be shown live on free-to-air television. But the ECB felt it had a product to sell which was undervalued, hence its desire to have Test cricket removed from the A-list. It is now classified as a B-list sport of which the Independent Television Commission requires only highlights to be shown on free-to-air.On May 18, 2001 – a day the ECB described as "a great day for cricket" – a three-year extension to the deal with C4 and Sky was signed and valued at £150 million, which was a 57% increase on the original deal. Whichever broadcasters seal the next deal, it seems inconceivable they will pay anywhere near that £150 million. The collapse of ITV Digital last year indicated how over-valued sports TV rights had become. The combined revenue from broadcast rights and sponsorship made up 87% of the ECB’s gross profits in 2002.C4’s coverage of Test cricket has won many awards and is widely admired. Yet there are suggestions that C4 are losing interest in the game and may not bid for the rights again when the deal ends in 2005. Last autumn David Brook, the director of strategy and development whose passion for cricket was the driving force behind bringing Test coverage to C4, left the channel.The summer of 2001 – with an Ashes series in which England were expected to compete strongly – was supposed to bring home the bacon for C4. It did not. Viewing figures peaked at 1.9 million for the Lord’s Test against Pakistan – the first of the summer – and fell consistently below that level as England were beaten heavily by Australia."Audiences for the Ashes were very good in the circumstances," says David Kerr, C4’s head of sport. The circumstances to which he refers are the fact that England continue to be ritually flogged every time they play Australia.When England beat West Indies in a thrilling early-evening finish on the Saturday of the Lord’s Test in 2000, C4 hit a high of five million viewers. There are only so many people who will watch Test cricket on TV regardless of England’s fortunes. In the Lord’s Test against Zimbabwe C4’s audience peaked at around two million on the Saturday evening when England completed their victory. Overall the first Test brought in an average of 1.1 million viewers ("very pleasing," according to Kerr) which was not far off the numbers who watched the Ashes Tests of 2001. For C4 to justify their expenditure on cricket (around 3-4% of their overall programming budget) they need England to do better. More specifically they need England to do better against Australia.Kerr dismisses suggestions that C4 are losing interest in cricket and will not be drawn on cricket’s next TV deal which the ECB would hope to have in place by the end of the 2005 summer at the latest. "It’s far too early to speculate on that," says Kerr. "We’re concentrating on making cricket as popular as possible over the next few years."There is a suspicion that the BBC are still smarting from the loss of Test cricket to C4. Whenever C4 leave the cricket to go racing there is normally a BBC employee ready with a barbed comment in the press box. There seems to be some mythical perfection attributed to the BBC’s televised coverage of cricket. They would interrupt it for news bulletins and viewers would miss the start of the second session for Neighbours. And from mid-June onwards Test matches would jostle for position with tennis, racing and golf.The BBC declined to talk on the record to WCM about the future of cricket on TV, which might indicate a lack of interest (cricket was dismissed with one quip by Gary Lineker during the BBC’s sports review of the year last December) or it could just be that they are being deliberately cagey as part of a long-term strategy. They might be hoping that C4 lose interest and they can buy back the rights from a worried ECB at a knock-down price. Industry rumour suggests that the BBC may no longer view cricket as a viable sport for television because of the time it takes and the weather. But Mark Sibley, the ECB’s new commercial director, says: "There is a new sense of sporting value at the BBC and they seem more competitive in the way they go out and bid for sports."Test cricket is a nightmare for TV schedulers. The hours of play are uncertain as is the weather. Many purists already consider that TV exerts too much influence on the staging of cricket, yet the decision to start at 10.45am is only the tip of the iceberg. The idea was to stop C4’s cricket coverage eating into the lucrative (for advertisers) early-evening schedules containing the teen soap opera Hollyoaks and their flagship news programme. Do not be surprised if Tests in England start as early as 10am before long. C4 are also unhappy about slow over-rates which cause a day’s play to over-run. "We’re looking for improvements," says Kerr. "It is in everybody’s interests for the game to be played in a pacier way. Cricket should be as compact an experience as possible."If the BBC did show Test cricket again, they might see it as an opportunity to schedule some of it on their digital channels. The other left-field option is the possibility of Channel Five using a bid for the rights to establish a credibility – and ABC1 advertising – that has hitherto eluded them.The ECB could, if it wanted to, sell all the live rights to Sky. The penetration of cable and satellite TV has reached around 40% of UK homes. But this seems unlikely. "It is crucial to the well-being of the game for the ECB to have a terrestrial broadcast partner," says Sibley. "But we recognise the value of what Sky do for cricket and there is a certain amount of money that we do need to receive from TV rights; it is about getting the right balance." Sibley adds: "The mix might be different going forward."There may be a lesson to be learned from rugby league where fraught negotiations are ongoing for a new TV deal. In 1995 rugby league sold all its rights for domestic league and international matches to Sky. But now there is a move to bring Great Britain internationals back to the BBC in the hope that it can breed a new generation of national – rather than regional – heroes like Ellery Hanley and Shaun Edwards. The profile of rugby union’s Six Nations Championship was raised considerably when England’s matches returned to the BBC.Maybe a cut-price TV deal would not be such a bad thing. Maybe what cricket really needs is less not more television money so that the counties finally wake up and enter the real world.Click here to subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly

The July 2003 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly is on sale at all good newsagents in the UK and Ireland, priced £3.25.

Richard Johnson has been given until Saturday morning to prove his fitness ahead of the NatWest Series final against South Africa at Lord’s.After his sparkling Test debut, in which he took six wickets against Zimbabwe at Durham, Johnson missed all three games of the NatWest Challenge against Pakistan with a knee injury. He returned in time for the start of the NatWest Series and has since taken seven wickets in six matches.However, he had to leave the field against South Africa at Edgbaston during England’s four-wicket win with groin stiffness, but Michael Vaughan is confident he will be fit for the final.Vaughan said: “He seems all right and has had a decent bowl this morning. But with any injury you have to wait until the next day to see how he wakes up. It will be important for us because he has been an invaluable member of the team since he has come in.””Having Richard Johnson in the side is a huge help,” added Vaughan. “If he’d been fit for the Pakistan series he’d have been batting at No. 9 and we’d have probably gone in with five bowlers then as well. He’s been a huge bonus for me as captain to have him coming in at No. 9 and obviously the way he’s bowled in the series.”If Johnson is not passed fit, England will probably choose between the wayward Steve Harmison, or the novice Kabir Ali.

Frizzell County Championship Division OneDay 3 ReportSurrey 693 beat Nottinghamshire 240 and 242 by an innings and 211 runs at Whitgift School
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With the honourable exception of Chris Read, Nottinghamshire rolled over and had their tummies tickled as Surrey stormed to an innings-and-211-run victory at Croydon, to consolidate their position at the top of the County Championship. Notts were always on a hiding to nothing after Surrey had posted a vast 693 in their only innings, and duly lost 12 wickets in the day. Only Read, with a plucky and selectorial-nudging 93, provided any resistance, as Notts were bowled out for 242 in the follow-on. Azhar Mahmood was the chief destroyer, and at once stage complete humiliation beckoned at 45 for 6. But Read and the tail showed some late backbone.Middlesex 407 and 141 for 6 lead Kent 477 by 71 runs at Lord’s
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Martin Saggers and Amjad Khan flipped an evenly-contested match on its head, as Middlesex squandered their overnight advantage to slump perilously close to defeat. After resuming on 285 for 6, Khan (78) added a further 130 for the seventh wicket with Mark Ealham, before Saggers wagged the tail along to an important 70-run lead with a brisk 44. Saggers and Khan were quickly into the act with the ball as well, grabbing an early wicket apiece as Middlesex floundered to 141 for 6 at the close. Saggers himself took three of the first five wickets to fall, before Paul Weekes and Jamie Dalrymple carried Middlesex to a dicey 71-run lead.Day 2 ReportSussex 385 v Lancashire 351 for 8 at Hove
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Stuart Law scored 96, and Glen Chapple brushed off his England disappointment with an important 54, as Lancashire fought towards first-innings parity at Hove. They had to cope with the wiles of Mushtaq Ahmed, who took 4 for 111 in 43 overs, and some incisive new-ball bowling from Billy Taylor, but by the close Warren Hegg and John Wood had nudged them to 351 for 8, a deficit of 34. Mark Chilton and Ian Sutcliffe started the day with a 99-run partnership for the first wicket, but when Mushtaq removed Carl Hooper and Chris Schofield in the space of three runs, Law and Chapple added 97 for the sixth wicket to stabilise the innings. Leicestershire 346 and 121 for 6 lead Warwickshire 277 by 190 runs at Edgbaston
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Fifteen wickets fell on the second day at Edgbaston, as Leicestershire had their first-innings advantage blown aside by another devastating performance from Waqar Younis. Waqar picked up 3 for 17 in six overs, as Leicestershire slumped from 98 for 1 to 121 for 6 at the close. Waqar had also saved Warwickshire with the bat. He came in at No. 10 and thumped 61 from 51 balls after his side had slumped to 138 for 7. He found excellent support from Dougie Brown, who finished unbeaten on 56. But that was just the start.Frizzell County Championship Division TwoDay 3 ReportGlamorgan 444 and 74 for 2 need another 12 runs to beat Durham 355 and 174 at Cardiff
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Mike Kasprowicz flagellated Durham’s batsmen with career-best figures of 9 for 36, as Glamorgan all but wrapped up victory at Cardiff. It had been an even contest at the start of the day, but Glamorgan eked out a first-innings lead of 89 thanks to a century from Mark Wallace and useful contributions from Alex Wharf and Kasprowicz himself, who lamped 24 from 38 balls. Durham wiped off the deficit with few alarms, but Kasprowicz was unstoppable in his second spell. Bowling fast and full, he skittled Durham’s last nine wickets for the addition of 55 runs, with all but two bowled or lbw. Glamorgan needed a mere 86 for victory and were 12 short at the close.Day 2 ReportSomerset 476 v Northamptonshire 322 for 2 at Taunton
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A magnificent unbeaten 144 from Mike Hussey kept Northants firmly in the hunt at Taunton, after Somerset’s tail had wagged their way to a hefty 476. Steffan Jones and Carl Gazzard had starred for Somerset, adding 102 for the eighth wicket, but their efforts were wiped out by Hussey’s reply. He thumped 19 fours in his 228 balls, and had added 153 with David Sales (84*) at the close.

Brian Lara was named Trinidad’s Cricketer of the Year by Gus Logie, the West Indies coach, at the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board’s 47th annual presentation function last week.As well as his efforts against Australia and Sri Lanka for West Indies this season, Lara also contributed to victories for Trinidad and Tobago in the Carib Beer regional series, making him the clear favourite for the honour. Ravi Rampaul, who holds the record for the most wickets in a regional youth series, was named the Young Cricketer of the Year over the weekend.Logie announced the awards at the function, before which he addressed the club’s up and coming players. He said all eyes would be on the successful young players in the coming season, and warned them of the pressures of making it to the top level.Logie said: “You will have to love it. Love the battle, love the challenges, love to see the momentum shift, and you must not be scared to defy the norm.”

England v South Africa, 4th Test, Headingley, Day 2

The day started off depressingly for diehard England fans. South Africa, not content with ruining their day yesterday, by reaching 260 when they should probably have been bowled out for half that, pooped the party even further by hanging around for 105 minutes and adding 82 more runs,And when they were finally all out there was one tense over for England’s openers to face before the lunch interval. We’d been here before: on the third evening at Trent Bridge, England had one over to negotiate. That time, Marcus Trescothick didn’t even survive the first ball, and England never really recovered.So this time it was vital that Trescothick and Michael Vaughan saw out that one over – and they did, even collecting 11 runs to make lunch go down that much easier. And though Vaughan departed shortly after lunch, Trescothick and Butcher never looked back. They were helped that the new ball was in the hands of Dewald Pretorius, very much the apprentice to the absent sorcerer Shaun Pollock. And with Monde Zondeki limping off after his batting heroics, South Africa were exposed in the field.England’s two contrasting left-handers ripped into the bowling. Trescothick, out of sorts in the series so far, got those pigeon toes twinkling, and eventually began to rasp out the crunching cover-drive that signifies he is in form. Meanwhile Butcher, who has been in fine fettle all summer, sprinted ahead, clunking cuts, drive and pulls to all parts. He surged to 50 with his seventh four, a ferocious chop off Andrew Hall. There were also seven fours in Trescothick’s half-century, which he reached an over or two later with a couple of prime cuts to the boundary off Makhaya Ntini.By now most of those England fans had emerged from behind the sofa, only to fall back on it in astonishment when Trescothick and Butcher amazed everyone by accepting the umpires’ bad-light offer about an hour after tea. It was a decision that allowed the shell-shocked South Africans to regroup – and also, inevitably, it cost a wicket almost immediately play resumed.Steven Lynch is editor of Wisden CricInfo.Click here for today’s bulletin

Zimbabweans 149 and 255 for 9 dec drew with Rockingham-Mandurah 123 and 135 for 6
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Craig Wishart completed a boundary-laden century and Sean Ervine enjoyed his third impressive performance of the match, to ensure that Zimbabwe finished the stronger in a testing first encounter of their Australian tour, against the grade cricketers of Rockingham-Mandurah.Zimbabwe had resumed their second innings on a ropey 107 for 6, a modest lead of 133. But Wishart, 32 not out overnight, found a solid ally in Ervine, and between them they added 136 for the seventh wicket to push Rockingham-Mandurah onto the defensive. Wishart’s innings was distinctly two-paced. Although he hung around for 235 balls, his innings included 11 fours and six sixes.Ervine’s contribution was a tenacious 51, including five fours and a six, and it was something of a surprise that he was overlooked for the man of the match award after his 41 and 5 for 37 in the first two innings of the match. Instead, that honour was shared by Wishart and Rockingham-Mandurah’s Luke Ronchi, who smacked his second brisk 40-odd of the match to ensure the draw.After being set an improbable target of 282, Ronchi came to the crease with Zimbabwe on something of a roll. Ervine was once again in the thick of things, dismissing Scott Meuleman early on and Craig Simmons for 35. But it was the left-arm spin of Ray Price that really put the skids under Rockingham-Mandurah. He finished with 4 for 55 including the dismissals of Steven Glew and Adam Voges in quick succession. But from 71 for 4, Ronchi’s run-a-ball 47 stalled Zimbabwe’s momentum and saved the match.Day Two bulletin