A brilliant end of innings bowling performance saw South Africa win anexciting fifth and final Standard Bank One-Day International at Newlands by34 runs bowling Pakistan out for 231 runs in 47.4 overs and in so doingconvincingly winning the series four-one.With 15 overs to go Pakistan needed 99 runs with six wickets still in handand with Inzamam-ul-Haq (56) and Younis Khan (43) both well set at the crease, it seemed as if they had taken the initiative away from South Africa andwere playing Pakistan towards a win.Shaun Pollock came back into the attack and bowled two brilliant oversgiving away just six runs. The pressure was back on Pakistan when Jacques Kallisbowled a four run over including the wicket of Inzamam for 63 and Pakistanwere 189/5 in the fortieth over.Inzamam had batted extremely well, working the ball into gaps and acceptingthe odd boundaries. He had played the perfect supporting role to Khan butthe moment the run rate required jumped to seven he seemed to changetactics, and in doing so lost his wicket.Kallis, mixing his pace and keeping the ball full, had Razzaq caught behindbacking away from a slower ball and then the most bizarre moment of theseries saw Khan run out for 71.Khan had pulled Andrew Hall to deep mid-wicket where Robin Peterson did wellto get a hand to the ball and flicked it infield to Pollock who fired theball to the bowler’s end. Khan was halfway down the pitchcoming back for an impossible third run while Shahid Afridi, at thebowler’s end, had his back to Khan. Hall threw back to Mark Boucher whowhipped the bails off with Khan stranded in the middle of the pitch.Television replays showed that Boucher might have knocked the bails off before breaking the stumps with the ball, but by that time Khan had already left the field.Afridi was still at the wicket with Pakistan needing 62 runs off sevenovers. A six off Hall that flew over extra cover like a missile, nevergetting up higher than about two metres, showed what a dangerous batsman hecould be and Pakistan were still very much in the game.Makhaya Ntini returned and bowled an over of full paced yorkers, shatteringthe stumps of Waqar Younis. Pollock followed with another excellent overcosting only four runs when Pakistan needed much more.Kallis then finished the innings off by bowling both Afridi and Mohammad Samiwith full-pitched balls to end with five for 41.In the last 10 overs of the match Pakistan had lost six wickets for 53 runs,evidence of top quality end of innings bowling from the South Africans.”We did not get the start that we needed”, said Waqar after the game, “but Iam glad with the way the middle order batted, it puts us in a good positionfor the upcoming Test series. South Africa is an outstanding cricket team,who stick to the task and get the job done”.Pollock had won the toss and after taking one look at the pitch decided tobat first on what looked like a perfect batting strip.Herschelle Gibbs, Gary Kirsten and Kallis found the pitch lacking in bounceand pace leaving South Africa at 61/3 in the 16th over.In came Jonty Rhodes and “finding the pitch to his liking” nudged the ballaround with Boeta Dippenaar to add 134 runs in 27 overs. The partnership was built on some brilliant running between the wickets by two of the fastest men in the South African team.Rhodes, winning the man-of-the-match award, ended on 81 off 95 balls and ashe has done so many times before had put his team back on track. As manyaccolades as he might receive for his innings the anchor work had been doneby Dippenaar.With early wickets falling around him, Dippenaar had put his head down andplayed the anchor role to Rhodes. Then when he had a hundred in his grasp, he unselfishly lost his wicket for 91 in trying to increase the team total. He left the field to a standing ovation and surely a ticket to the World Cup.It was however Boucher that changed the outcome of the match, smashingAfridi for two sixes in the 47th over and then repeating it in the next overwhich cost Saqlain Mushtaq 22 runs. By the time he was caught behind Boucherhad hit 34 runs in 16 balls with South Africa ending on 265/8.Pakistan had a disastrous start losing two wickets in the first two overs.Some disciplined bowling and the loss of Kamran Akmal on 42 in the 13th overplaced much pressure on the remaining batsmen.Younis Youhana, the leading one-day international run scorer in 2002, clawedPakistan back into the game, but lost his wicket at 46 when the team needed him to bat through the innings.This brought Inzamam and Khan together and playing some intelligent cricketthey put together a 108 run partnership that nearly took Pakistan to victory.For South Africa this was another professional performance and must makethem near favourites for the World Cup being played on home soil. Winningthe three series against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan has highlightedmany positives, one of them the ability to come back when almost countedout.

BRISBANE, Dec 16 AAP – Australia’s world champion cricketers could share Shane Warne’s pain in the coming weeks according to Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya.Sri Lanka plays its first match in the triangular one-day series tomorrow when it meets England at the Gabba, before playing the Warne-less Australia in Perth on Sunday.Warne dislocated his shoulder last night and Jayasuriya knows the pain after suffering the same injury while playing against South Africa earlier this year.”I did a similar thing in Morocco. It is a painful injury and it’s still not 100 per cent now,” Jayasuriya said.”He is a key bowler for them and it will affect them.”How much Warne’s injury affects Australia depends on the performances of England and Sri Lanka after poor summers in the southern hemisphere.England is winless in Australia while Sri Lanka was paddled 4-1 on its recent South African tour, raising doubts over its World Cup chances in Africa in February and March.The Sri Lankans are not comfortable on the bouncier wickets in South Africa and Australia, winning just 15 of the 73 completed one-day internationals in the two countries.Sri Lanka was outgunned by Australia A in a warm-up match at the Gabba on Sunday and coach Dav Whatmore admitted his players had to adjust to unfamiliar surroundings.”The bigger picture is to develop a team, and the players within it, who can perform in these conditions,” Whatmore said.”We’re not happy with (the loss to Australia A) but we’ve got that game under our belt.”Sri Lanka has been installed as slight favourites by some bookmakers to beat England in an important match for both teams.Sri Lanka has a fully fit squad, with the exception of star off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, and Jayasuriya has said the tourists will always try to play entertaining cricket.They should get the chance on a typically good Gabba wicket and against an England team frazzled by its summer losses.But Jayasuriya, while having no sympathy for England, would not make any predictions about the triangular series.”You never know what will happen, especially in a one-day game,” he said.Whatmore said tour selectors would probably settle on a team tonight, but it won’t be announced until tomorrow.The England squad arrived in Brisbane today following last night’s 89-run loss to Australia at the MCG.Its senior players won’t feel any comfort walking into the Gabba, revisiting the scene of England’s 384-run loss to Australia in the first Ashes Test last month.

THE initial reaction on looking back at my original assessment of the inaugural World Cup was to cringe at its hyperbole.It was, I wrote at the time, "perhaps the boldest and most ambitious innovation the game has known since the legalisation of overarm bowling". Yet, as we prepare for the eighth such tournament, more than a quarter-century on, it doesn’t seem so outrageous after all.Until the advent of limited-overs, single-innings matches in English domestic cricket in the 1960s, such a concept was simply impractical. A round-robin series of five-day Tests, even among as few teams as the six that then had Test status, was too time-consuming to contemplate.It needed the development of the shortened version, with matches completed in a day, to give birth to the World Cup idea and the daring of International Cricket Conference (ICC) – a body not usually credited with foresight – to implement it.They chose England as the venue, a questionable choice only as far as the unpredictable weather was concerned but best qualified by virtue of its tradition, its facilities, its manageable size and the presence of a large, cosmopolitan, immigrant population of passionate cricket followers.They found a generous sponsor in the Prudential Insurance Company, which paid £100 000 for tournament naming rights. And they invited Sri Lanka, yet to reach their present exalted rank, and East Africa (a combination of club cricketers from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) to take part along with the Test teams of the day (Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and the West Indies).With everything in place, they set the process in motion on June 7 with matches between England and India at Lord’s and Australia and Pakistan at Headingley.For the following two weeks, the success exceeded the expectations of even the most cock-eyed optimist.One of the main ingredients for its triumphant run was the weather. It remained glorious, untypically British, right through. Not a single ball was lost to the elements.A rousing final, at a packed Lord’s in uninterrupted summer sunshine, was able to run until the final wicket fell at 8:41 p.m. on the longest day of the year as the West Indies completed victory by 17 runs over Australia after 118.4 overs.Large, enthusiastic crowds thronged the six grounds for most of the matches. Thousands of joyous, enthusiastic West Indians, who transformed the Oval and Lord’s into Caribbean carnivals with their drums and whistles, brought to the occasion a special excitement previously foreign to the game in England.The World Cup had come to stay.It has inevitably evolved in the interim so that the 2003 event in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya will be all but unrecognisable from what it was in that unforgettable English summer of 1975.T he innings will be restricted to 50 overs instead of 60. Fourteen teams bedecked in national colours will contest 54 matches at 15 different grounds in three countries over six weeks, many under lights, with white balls against black sightboards and on fields demarcated with a field-restricting area.In the beginning, eight teams used the six main venues in England for 15 matches and got through the whole business in a fortnight.Everyone dressed in conventional white and bowled with the red ball. The only markings were the popping and return creases. And lights were restricted to the scoreboards.Yet a few tenets were immediately established that have remained constant.One was that the best players remained the best players, whatever the length of the game.Others were that partnerships were as crucial over one day as over five, and that tactics were, if anything, even more critical in the condensed version.Above all, the value of fielding was repeatedly emphasised, especially in the final when the West Indies effected five run outs in their pulsating victory over Australia. Three were by Viv Richards, a dynamic 24-year-old athlete soon to become one of the greats of the game, who threw out three of the first four in the order.Another certainty was also established. It was that, for all the inevitable scepticism of the traditionalists, the concentrated action of the abbreviated game made it hugely popular.Aggregate crowds of 158 000 paid over £200 000 to watch the 15 matches, 26 000 of them at the Lord’s final where gate receipts were £66 000, then a record for a one-day match.If these figures – and the prize money distribution of £4 000 pounds for the winners, £2 000 for the runners-up and £1 000 each for the beaten semifinalist – appear laughably puny now, they were not to be scoffed at 26 years ago.The West Indies had been justifiably installed as favourites and lived up to the bookmakers’ confidence. Their strength lay in their all-round depth, their fielding and the experience that 11 of their squad of 14 had of the special demands of the limited-overs game from their seasons of county cricket.They did have one scare, in the first round against talented but mercurial Pakistan when they squeezed home by one wicket with two balls remaining. That apart, they showed themselves palpably the best team.In between the Pakistan thriller, they despatched Sri Lanka by nine wickets in 56 overs and, in a prelude to the final, beat Australia by seven wickets at the Oval, in the heart of London’s pulsating West Indian population.New Zealand proved no match in the semi-final, defeated by five wickets with as many as 19.5 overs remaining.Their captain, Clive Lloyd, a destroyer in spectacles, set up victory in the final virtually on his own – with a little help from Richards and his fielders.His 102 from 85 balls was an exhilarating exhibition of power-hitting that saw the West Indies to 291 for eight from their 60 overs. He followed it with a containing spell of medium-pace bowling (12-1-38-1) that kept Australia in check as they were dismissed for 274.The Australians were scheduled to play a series of four Tests against England following the Cup and their captain, Ian Chappell, made it plain that was their main focus. With limited-overs cricket still in its infancy back home, they were reportedly not keen on it. But, as Australians, they were less keen on losing.The draw placed the West Indies, Australia and Pakistan in the same group that was completed by Sri Lanka.Only two could advance to the semi-final and Pakistan, also filled with county professionals, were the unfortunate ones to miss out, even though they severely tested Australia and, by all that is logical, should have beaten the West Indies whose last two wickets put on 110.Sri Lanka might have fared better with a more favourable draw, but endured three heavy defeats on their way out. They won a host of fans with their plucky batting that raised 276 for four against Australia, even after two of their batsmen had to be hospitalised after taking blows from the fiery Jeff Thomson. Their time would come.England had the advantage of the less demanding group and coasted into the semi-final after sweeping all three qualifying matches.They amassed 266 for six against New Zealand, 290 for five against East Africa and 334 for four against India, the tournament’s highest total. The standard of their opponents only camouflaged their known weaknesses that were exposed in the semi-final against Australia when, on an appalling pitch at Headingley, they were routed for 93 by the left-arm swing and seam of Gary Gilmour (12-6-14-6) and lost by five wickets.The second qualifier from the group, New Zealand, depended heavily on their captain, Glenn Turner, an established pro with Worcestershire.He batted through the innings against both East Africa and India to become the only batsman with two hundreds in the tournament. When he failed against England and against the West Indies in the semi-final, the team couldn’t muster 200 and lost comfortably.India did run New Zealand close in their decisive first round match, but a semi-final place would have been an undeserving honour after they reduced their match against England, the showpiece opening at Lord’s, to a farce.They paid for the selectorial madness of omitting their left-arm spin wizard Bishan Bedi to be hammered around at 5.5 runs an over and made no effort to compete. Sunil Gavaskar, their finest batsman, epitomised their cynical attitude by batting through the 60 overs for 36 not out.It took the sparkle of that ebullient cricketer, Abid Ali, to erase some of the shame with a thrilling, yet futile, all-round performance against New Zealand (70 and 12-2-35-2).Africa’s strongest team, South Africa, had placed itself beyond the pale of international sport by its policy of racial exclusion and Rhodesia, later to become Zimbabwe, was still governed by the illegal Ian Smith regime.So it was left to the inadequate amalgamation of East Africa to represent the continent. Comprised of weekend club cricketers never before exposed to such international standards, they wereduly outclassed.The competition was an unqualified success even before the final, but a remarkable match was a fitting climax."It might not be termed first-class," noted Wisden, the game’s bible, "but the game has never provided better entertainment in one day."It was a contest of intensity and incident that kept the crowd of 26,000 in a constant state of frenzy.It produced Lloyd’s outstanding individual performance and his vital fourth wicket partnership of 149 with the wily, 39-year-old Rohan Kanhai. There were uncharacteristic errors in the field by the Australians that contrasted with the brilliance of Richards and the other West Indians.And an unlikely last wicket Australian partnership of 41 between the two feared fast bowlers, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, produced the final dramatic twist.The pair threatened to snatch an astonishing victory until wicket-keeper Deryck Murray’s presence of mind, calmness of nerve and accuracy of throw, to underarm the stumps with Thomson out of his ground, formalised the result as Lord’s was immediately engulfed by thousands of excited fans.The famous old ground had never seen anything like it. It set a standard by which all subsequent finals would be judged – and none has yet matched it.

The Somerset Cricket Board in conjunction with Somerset Active Sports have issued an invitation to all young cricketers, both boys and girls, between the ages of nine and fourteen years old to go along and take part in one of their coaching courses.The courses that last for ten weeks have just got underway and are taking place at centres right across the county.An open invitation to all says: "If you’re keen on cricket, thanks to Sport England Active Sports and the Stroud and West Building Society West Of England Premier League, you can be part of a comprehensive cricket coaching programme designed to give young cricketers like yourself the chance to be best you can beright up to junior county level."Somerset Cricket Board Development Officer Andrew Moulding told me: "These courses are proving to be very popular with both boys and girls. We are hoping that once the young cricketers have completed their ten week course that they will go along and join a local club and take part in one of the junior competitions that we run across the county."The course are being held at Bridgwater, Burnham on Sea, Chard, Glastonbury, Langport, Minehead, Shepton Mallet, Taunton,Wells and Yeovil, and cost £20 for the ten sessions. Any young cricketer who wants to find out more about the scheme should contact Mr Moulding on 01823 352266.

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.