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Hampshire Under-16 opener Jack Lovett is set for his senior St Cross Symondians debut at Lymington tomorrow (1pm) as the Winchester club seeks to retrieve lost ground at the top of Southern Electric Premier League, Division 2.Lovett has been in sparkling form for St Cross 2nd XI, who are pressing hard for Hampshire League promotion.He gets his big chance as St Cross bid to claw back the three-point lead Old Tauntonians & Romsey gained at the top last weekend.Dan Peacock (broken finger) could return to bolster a Lymington side that has lost six of its last seven matches and dropped into the bottom half of the table.OT’s, meanwhile, travel to enigmatic Hursley Park, who are capable of beating the best on their day.Knocked out of the National Village Championship at Findon last weekend, Easton & Martyr Worthy must beat lowly Gosport Borough if they are to keep their championship prospects alive.But they have a substantial 19-point gap to make up on St Cross, whom they beat by five wickets last week.On-song Burridge bid to make it five wins out of six at Purbrook, who broke their duck at the ninth attempt last week but remain bottom.Sparsholt have slipped back on to the lip of the relegation zone, but a win over United Services at Burnaby Road will ease their worries.

The new season inched a little closer today at the County Ground in Taunton where Somerset took on Glamorgan in a three day friendly.On a cold but bright morning play got underway on time with the Somerset opening attack of Richard Johnson and Simon Francis looking threatening early on.However once the Glamorgan openers Steve James and Ian Thomas came to terms with the conditions they started to build a partnership, and had taken the score onto 88 before the visiting skipper was out for 44.Thomas then helped to take the score onto 128 before he was out caught by wicket-keeper Rob Turner off the bowling of Gareth Andrew for 49.Two more wickets fell quickly, and Glamorgan had slipped to 136 for 4, before Matthew Maynard and Jonathan Hughes came together and took control of the situation.Both players took full advantage of the short boundary and by late afternoon had taken the score onto 424 for 4, having shared an unbeaten fifth wicket partnership of 288, which came off 280 balls, with Maynard on 132, and Hughes on 122, before Glamorgan declared.In reply Somerset lost Matt Wood for 4 with the score on 11 and Piran Holloway following in the same over that was bowled by Alex Wharf.By close of play evergreen Peter Bowler and new boy James Bryant had steadied the situation and taken the Cidermen onto 107 without further loss, Bowler ending on 66 and Bryant on 33.

So the time has come to say farewell. An old man’s hesitation and tardyrunning may have cost him the chance of a fitting swansong but the memorieswill live long anyhow. Aravinda de Silva, Sri Lanka’s greatest batsman andthe longest-serving player in international cricket, has finally called timeon an glorious career that stretches back nearly two decades.

Despite being 37-years-old and balding fast, he remains capable with bat andball. Indeed, Sri Lankan cricket officials have already tried to persuadehim to stay on for another six months. But de Silva, like any greatperformer, appreciates the value of timing. Money is not a concern and thereis now nothing left to prove. For a man always motivated by the bigoccasion, a World Cup exit was perfect and now he will begin a new life.Unlike so many professional cricketers who hang up their boots and wonder”what next?” de Silva’s future is already mapped out. Coaching is not hiscalling, although he is a master cricket strategist and technician, and hissoft voice will not sit well alongside the orchestrated hysteria of TonyGreig on microphone. Instead, he seeks the challenge of business; a fieldthat tests the same fierce competitiveness that saw him amass 15,645 runs inTests and ODIs.

Already he has proved himself a sound commercial operator: he has been aboard member of one of Colombo’s largest conglomerates, sold mobileconnections to the war-ravaged north, set-up and sold one of Colombo’sleading Indian restaurants, silently invested in a series of other venturesand played the stock market with the same dexterity that allowed him to milkthe world’s best spinners. When de Silva moves, Colombo’s businessmen watch.Scoring runs and making money requires ruthlessness. And despite beingblessed with the kind of charm that made Canterbury’s tea ladies melt,reminding them of bygone eras when cricketers were gentlemen, de Silva isruthless.But de Silva will not be remembered for his commercial exploits, no matterhow great they will be. De Silva and Sri Lankan cricket have been joined atthe hip during the last 19 years, walking side by side on a journey ofself-discovery. When he first strode out to bat in international cricket,against New Zealand at Moratuwa way back in March 1984, Sri Lanka had onlysix ODI victories under their belt and were still two years away from theirfirst Test win. Today, as he lays down his blade, 178 ODIs and 32 Tests havenow been bagged and World Cup semi-final appearances invoke disappointmentnot joy. During that two decade journey there has been a transformation: ofman and country.

During those early years, Sri Lanka were the whipping boys of internationalcricket: smiling, charming, stylish, talented, but, all too frequently,losers. De Silva was cast in a similar mould: unfailingly polite,soft-spoken, an artisan with the bat but one who specialised in cameoperformances, apparently content to play second fiddle to the main act.Dubbed Mad Max for his daring approach and unquenchable urge to dominate, hestarred frequently but all too briefly, lighting up a game with hispotential but falling short of fulfillment. Even today his statistics,astonishing as they are, tells the tale: on 75 occasions he has passed fiftyin an ODI but only 11 of those were converted to centuries. He was theplayboy of Sri Lanka cricket: women swooned and fast cars were his passion.But during the mid-1990’s things started to change: style met substance andthe purple years commenced. Kent were fortunate enough to hire his serviceswith the metamorphosis in full swing. He plundered attacks across thecountry, swung mighty sixes into the Tavern Stand during Lord’s finals andmade friends wherever he went. Canterbury fell in love. Graham Cowdrey, ateammate, still remembers his farewell: “When he packed his bags, he huggedeach of us, and I have never known a professional sports team so close totears.”

And then there was the 1996 World Cup, a tournament that produced the finestmoment of his career: a match-winning performance against the Australians inthe Lahore final as he pinched three wickets with his off-breaks and thenlaced the bowlers to all corners on his way to a sizzling hundred. Hissemi-final performance was, perhaps, even more memorable. He arrived in themiddle with both openers in the hutch and only one run on the board. Acapacity 100,000 plus Eden Garden’s crowd vibrated with delight. Calmly andboldly, he counter-attacked, unveiling his full repertoire of strokes. Itwas not an attack born out of desperation, but a controlled assault, a raremixture of power, precision and finesse. 14 boundaries and 66 runs later hisgreatness was assured and Sri Lanka’s arrival in the big-time was confirmed.Afterwards, for two prolific years, he vied with Sachin Tendulkar and BrianLara as the best batsman in the world. Between 1997 and 1999 he played 24Tests, scoring 2195 runs at an average of 66.5. In 1997 alone he scoredseven hundreds and two fifties in just 11 Tests. Unfortunately, the powersstarted to diminish thereafter as selection squabbles and controversy tookits toll.The match-fixing furore threatened a humiliating end as Indian bookmakerMukesh Gupta claimed in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reportthat de Silva and captain Arjuna Ranatunga were entangled in the scandal.The Sri Lankan Cricket Board launched an independent inquiry despite stanchdenials. Eventually the pair were cleared as Gupta refused to testify in acourt of law, but by then the damage had already been done. His interest inthe game was waning; the selectors wanted him cast aside and, after England’s 2001 tour of Sri Lanka, he drifted into the wilderness, hanging up hisboots for the best part of a year.

A lifeline was thrown at the beginning of 2002 when a new selection panelwas convened. De Silva grabbed his chance, shedding 12 kilos as he soughtone final fling on the international scene. Picked first for the Test sideduring Sri Lanka’s tour to England, he also won a one-day recall as theselectors looked to strengthen the middle order for the World Cup. Hisreturn produced flashes of a glorious past but never recovered the sustainedbrilliance of his pomp. Nevertheless, he remained the most feared batsman inthe middle order, capable, as he was throughout his career, ofsingle-handedly changing the course of a match. The fact that his semi-finalrun out by Andy Bichel spelt the end of Sri Lanka’s 2003 World Cup campaignspoke volumes of the veteran’s enduring importance to the side.As de Silva finally puts his fading pads to bed and turns his full attentionto his loving wife Sarita and baby son Sampras, he will do so in theknowledge that he touched greatness. He may not have matched the phenomenalconsistency of a Tendulkar or Waugh, and he may not have scored as many bighundreds as he should, but, for brief moments in his career, he elevatedbatting to heights achieved by very few. Quite simply, he brought magic tothe game. His cricketing journey has ended but the legacy will live on. Anew era in Sri Lanka cricket now beckons and de Silva, more than any otherindividual, helped ensure their arrival in the big time.

Mark Garaway, the Somerset Assistant Coach who is also the Director of the South West Regional Academy told me recently: “The time since I joined the club at the end of October has just flown by.”28-year-old Mark, who played for Hampshire as a wicket-keeper batsman before becoming their Cricket Development Officer continued, “This has been a good situation for me to come into, and since I joined the club things have moved on.”One of the major developments has been the improved relationships with Millfield School at Street where we have linked up with Richard Ellison and Mark Davis. Part of the ECB Regional Academy group go up to Millfield once a week, and the match against UCCCE XI on April 13th is now being played there. In addition we have arranged a match between Millfield School and Somerset Second Eleven.”Since Mark joined the club he has seen the introduction of a lot of new computerised technology equipment at all levels, which will improve players’ performances.”Everything is becoming much more scientific now. Even the younger age group players are starting to identify their problems to work on,” Mark said. “When we start playing we will hopefully see the results.”Mark has bought a house just outside Taunton where he hopes to be living before the start of the season. “It’s worked out well for me, and I’m pretty excited by things here at Somerset,” he said.

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove has every confidence in Shane Warne. Speaking at a press conference following the news that Hampshire’s Australian captain had been sent back to Australia from the World Cup after testing positive for a small trace of a diuretic drug during the VB Final series in January, his return to the side after his shoulder injury.”Knowing Shane as I do” said Bransgrove, “I know that he would never jeopardise his career. He may have been a little naive, but he is not a drug user, either as a performance enhansing agent or socially”.”I am confident” he continued, “that he will be able to return to South Africa to play a roll in Australia’s World Cup defence”.When asked about his Hampshire prospects, Bransgrove was upbeat that he will as planned play a pivotal part of the team this year, our plans circle around our captain and leading overseas star”.”I have tried to contact Shane today, but If I was him I would have had my mobile phone turned off”.

The Pakistan Cricket Board authorities heaved a sigh ofrelief as the West Indies have given them a green signal oftouring Pakistan from Jan 25 to March 7 for three Tests andas many One-Day matches.A PCB spokesman announced the itinerary on Thursday. It willbe the first tour of any foreign senior team to Pakistansince a year. India refused to tour Pakistan in Jan-Feb dueto political reasons. Later, New Zealand cancelled theirtour to Pakistan at the eleventh hour after the Sept 11 airattacks on US and took back their team in midway fromSingapore after listening to the news of attacks there.The West Indies tour was also in doldrums due to securityreasons in the wake of the US retaliation attacks onAfghanistan, however International Cricket Council (ICC)saved the PCB from further losses by taking a decision thatunder such circumstances a series could be shifted to aneutral venue.The West Indies tour, as second option, could also beshifted to a neutral venue, most probably Kenya. The WestIndies team will arrive at Islamabad on Jan 25 to start itstour with a three-day side game at the KRL ground,Rawalpindi from Jan 28 to 30.The first Test will be held at Rawalpindi from Feb 2to7 withone day rest on Feb 5 due to Kashmir Day.The second Test is allotted to Peshawar and is scheduled tobe held from Feb 11 to 15.The third Test is scheduled to be held at Faisalabad fromFeb 19 to 23.The three-match One-Day series will begin with the opener atLahore on Feb 28. The second and third One-Dayer will beheld at Multan on March 3 and Karachi on March 6,respectively.Itinerary of the tour:Jan 25 (Friday): Arrival at Islamabad from Karachi.Jan 26 (Saturday): Travel/Rest/Nets.Jan 27 (Sunday): Nets.Jan 28 to 30 (Mon-Wed.): Three-Day Game at KRLground, Rawalpindi.Jan 31 and Feb 1: Rest and Nets.Feb 2 to 7 (Sat-Thurs): First Test at Rawalpindi (Feb 5 Rest- Day due to Kashmir Day).Feb 8 to 10: Travel and Nets.Feb 11 to 15 (Mon-Thurs): Second Test at Peshawar.Feb 16 to 18: Travel/Rest/Nets.Feb 19 to 23 (Tue-Sat): Third Test at Faisalabad.Feb 24 to 27: Travel/ Rest/Nets.Feb 28 (Thurs): First One-Day at Lahore.March 1-2: Travel/Rest/Nets.March 3 (Sunday): Second One-Day at Multan.March 4-5: Travel/Rest/Nets.March 6 (Wed): Third One-Day at Karachi.March 7: Departure.

The NSWIS Blues have booked a place in this season’s National Women’s Cricket League finals series after storming to dual wins over the Western Fury in Perth this weekend.After being tested all the way in an eight wicket win with only eight deliveries to spare on Saturday, the Blues revelled in warm conditions on Sunday to claim a 105-run win.Openers Lisa Sthalekar and Lisa Keightley were the stars, combining in partnerships of 142 and 124 at the top of the order that laid the platform for two impressive New South Wales innings.In the aftermath of national captain Belinda Clark’s relocation to Victoria, national squad member Sthalekar’s progression to an opening batting role has become one of the defining features of the Blues’ unbeaten season.”I’ve only recently started opening the batting, so it was nice to have a good innings on Saturday and then to follow it up on the Sunday. That was my goal for the weekend, so I was pretty happy with that. More importantly, Lisa and I are now starting to get some good partnerships going,” said Sthalekar.The 22-year-old also claimed two wickets for the weekend with her medium pace to claim dual Player of the Match awards and assume the leading role in guiding the Blues into the best-of-three finals series that begins on 2 February.”It takes a lot of pressure off us going into the final round (against Victoria) now,” said Sthalekar of the morale-boost that the guaranteed top-two finish offers the team.”Hopefully, we can just enjoy ourselves now and work on the things that we need to improve without that pressure of trying to make the finals.”Though they are now condemned to finish the season winless, the Fury were far from disgraced in either match. Their total of 6/209 in the opening match of the weekend was the sixth highest in NWCL competition this summer, and their bowlers complemented the effort by pushing the Blues to the closest finish among their six completed games.Zoe Goss (59), Heather Taylor (41) and Angele Gray (36) were in fine touch on Saturday, and Julianne Langley (29) led the upper order well as it followed up with more impressive batting on Sunday. Albeit that a total of five run outs – and seven in total for the weekend – ensured that no player was able to reach the thirties in the second of the two matches.Alas, Keightley and Sthalekar’s ability to build two big partnerships also remained one of the big differences between the teams.

When Michael Vaughan was appointed the England one-day international captain, the glamour and excitement of leading his country out against Australia at Sydney or South Africa at Cape Town must have been at the forefront of his mind. But his first game in charge is quite a different prospect – it’s against Wales at Cardiff.But any thoughts of a Welsh walkover will have been banished after last year’s fixture, in which a lacklustre England – captained by Marcus Trescothick – went down by an embarrassing eight wickets. Wales loved it – and they today announced their squad for this year’s rematch, sponsored by NatWest, taking place on Saturday, June 14.As expected, the majority of the Wales squad play for Glamorgan – including their overseas player Michael Kasprowicz – with only Steffan Jones (Somerset) and Tony Cottey (Sussex) coming from elsewhere. However, they do have their injury worries: Steve James and Darren Thomas are currently sidelined by knee injuries, Cottey has been struggling this season with a bad back, and Simon Jones is still out of action after the sickening knee injury he suffered against Australia last November. Geraint Jones, enjoying a fruitful season behind the stumps at Kent, unluckily misses out to Glamorgan’s Mark Wallace.And taking a leaf out of the Welsh rugby team’s book, the selectors scouted the cricket world for any potential adoptions. Craig Spearman, who has played 19 Tests and 51 ODIs for New Zealand and is currently playing for Gloucestershire, was born in Wales, and Stuart MacGill, Australia’s No. 1 legspinner (when Shane Warne isn’t available), has Welsh family. However, both have not been included, as they will be required by their counties for Twenty20 matches that same weekend, and, according to the management, “It was felt that as the current National Cricket League champions, there was already a good nucleus from within the Glamorgan playing staff and that they should make up the majority of the Welsh squad.”John Derrick, the Wales and Glamorgan coach, agreed. “We know that having lost the inaugural match last June the England team will be approaching the game with victory in mind, and of course it will be a very hard game indeed. But it’s a fantastic concept and we hope the Welsh public will again come out in force and support the Wales players in what we hope will be another memorable and successful occasion.”Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, has a foot in both camps after a brief spell in charge at Glamorgan, and he expressed his support and encouragement of what could become a more permanent fixture: “I know from my time with Glamorgan that the concept of Wales playing England is one that the whole of Wales embraces, but it provided us with a very important practice period in 2002 and we welcome the opportunity to repeat it.”He continued: “Certainly I believe there is room for this fixture as a regular on the cricketing calendar, not just to help us but also because of what it can do for the development and profile of cricket in Wales. After last year’s result we’re naturally keen to win the game and exact some revenge.”NatWest will be launching their “Summer of Cricket” in Cardiff the day before the game, as well as launching their newly sponsored Inter Cricket programme. The NatWest Interactive Zone will be on the ground on both the Friday and the Saturday.Provisional Wales Squad
Steve James (capt), Ian Thomas, Robert Croft, Michael Powell, Matthew Maynard, David Hemp, Adrian Dale, Tony Cottey, Jonathan Hughes, Mark Wallace (wk), David Harrison, Michael Kasprowicz, Darren Thomas, Alex Wharf, Steffan Jones, Andrew Davies, Dean CoskerThere are still tickets available for the Wales v England game, priced £25 for adults and £5 for juniors, and tickets for all of the matches taking place as part of the Festival of Cricket, including the NatWest Series One-Day International between South Africa and Zimbabwe on July 5, can be obtained either by calling in to the Glamorgan offices in Cardiff or by telephoning 029 2040 9380.For further information please contact:Mike FatkinChief ExecutiveGlamorgan County Cricket ClubSophia GardensCardiff CF11 9XRTel: (029) 2040 9380Mark HodgsonMedia Relations ManagerEngland and Wales Cricket BoardLord’s Cricket GroundLondon NW8 8QZTel: (020) 7432 1200

He once walked into an airplane, pre-empted the steward, grabbed acarton of soft drinks and went about distributing it to all thepassengers on the aircraft. In keeping with that incident, he sports amischievous grin that rests awkwardly on a strapping, muscular frame.Iqbal Siddiqui now smiles broader than ever after being named in thesquad for the first Test against England at Mohali.The lad from Aurangabad has indeed come a long way since his firstclass debut. “I made my debut for Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophyknock-out match against Railways in 1992-93. Quite a long time ago,”he admits. But then again, neither the conditions nor the wickets inIndia make for ideal fast bowling conditions. Siddiqui, however, putin the hard work, shelving frustration and waiting for his chance. “Ijust wanted to reach where I am today and see my name in the Indianteam,” he says.To make it to the Indian team, Siddiqui has had to toil, both in termsof learning his craft and building muscle and endurance. “If I had notworked hard, none of this would have come to me, even if a bit late.When matches neared, I used to work even more, keeping myself fitduring the games,” he says.More than once in this period of waiting in the wings, Siddiqui hasbeen to England in the Indian off-season, turning out for club sidesthere. Although he recognises some of the benefits in doing so, heclearly has no illusions about the matter. “It is no use really; afterall, we don’t play for county teams, just small club sides. It justhelped me keep fit, bowling every week and training and things likethat,” Siddiqui explains. With a chuckle, the Maharashtra seamer adds,”After all, we are not such big cricketers in India that people willprepare wickets specially for us in the winter.”Although he has bagged over 230 first-class wickets in all, it is onlynow that the selectors have given him the big break. His four-wickethaul against England at Jaipur certainly helped tilt the scales in hisfavour. Siddiqui, however, is quick to state that it is not a one-offperformance that has earned him his place. “It is not one innings orthe other where I have performed well. Year after year, my aim hasbeen to surpass the previous year’s achievements. I’m just fightingwith myself,” he says somewhat philosophically.Like him or not, think him worthy of a Test spot or not, Siddiqui issure to catch your attention. He is the kind of character that theIndian team could do with. Jovial yet deadly serious about his work,casual yet intense with the ball in hand, Siddiqui might just carvehimself a place in memory at Mohali.

Andy Flower, a giant among pygmies, again played the role of Horatius on thebridge, frustrating the might of South Africa as they attempted to wrap upthe First Test match against Zimbabwe in four days. Flower set severalrecords during the day and he was still there with 138 at the close, havingso far batted for 12-and-a-half hours in the match. His team finished 10 runs frommaking South Africa bat again, with three wickets in hand.As play began, a few quiet singles from Flower, 43 overnight, took him tohis fifty; this was the fifth time in his career he has scored a century anda fifty in the same Test match, and the fourth time in two years. It washis 11th fifty in his last 14 Test innings, and he has now played 15successive innings without being dismissed by a bowler for less than 40.An on-drive from his overnight partner, Hamilton Masakadza, off ClaudeHenderson for four brought him his fifty and also Zimbabwe’s first centurypartnership in four Tests against South Africa. Flower’s next landmark was200 runs in the match, for the fourth time in his career, all during thelast two years.Masakadza enjoyed a life on 56 when he cut Makhaya Ntini hard into thegully, and Shaun Pollock was unable to hold a sharp chance. Overall theSouth African fielding in this match was a little short of their usualstandard of near perfection, with Zimbabwe also benefiting in both inningsfrom several misfields. Another difficult but possible chance came on 70,when the same batsman edged a cut from Lance Klusener low past first slipJacques Kallis, who was unable to get a hand to it.Masakadza enjoyed another life on 79, immediately after lunch, missed offanother hard chance in the gully. Then Henderson settled into a tightleg-stump line that tied him down, and finally got his man, caught at shortleg off pad and bat for 85. It was a good decision by umpire Tiffin despitea comparatively muted appeal, after both umpires during the morning hadcorrectly, according to replays, given several close decisions in favour ofthe batsmen. The pair had added 186 for the third wicket.A reverse sweep for four off Henderson in the last over before the secondnew ball brought Flower his second century of the match, the secondZimbabwean to do so after his brother Grant, and the first wicket-keeper todo so in Test cricket. Nobody else has performed the feat against thestrong South African attack since readmission; in fact, not since AustralianJack Moroney in 1949/50.When South Africa took the second new ball, Andy retreated intowatchfulness. Grant, still battling with mental and technical problems,scored 16 before driving Ntini straight to cover just before tea, when Andywas on 115 and Zimbabwe still needed 65 more to avoid the innings defeat.On either side of tea the cricket developed into a war of attrition as SouthAfrica, unable to dismiss Flower, bowled a defensive line outside off stumpto restrain him. Flower occasionally broke through the field but GuyWhittall (3) never looked happy before being adjudged lbw to Henderson.Heath Streak (19) was brilliantly caught by Kallis at second slip offPollock, while Flower hung on, though visibly tiring after almost two fulldays keeping wicket followed by an even longer period at the crease. TravisFriend, though, looked like repeating his impressive defiance of the firstinnings and was unbeaten with 10 at the close.