Steve Waugh admitted it would be almost impossible to improve on his day at Sydney, after completing his 29th Test century off the last ball of the day. to equal the late Sir Donald Bradman’s record.The innings, which seled Australia’s recovery in the final Ashes Test against England, was greeted with a standing ovation from both the sell-out SCG crowd and the England players.On his home ground, Waugh also became the third man in history, after Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border, to pass 10,000 Test runs.”I don’t think it gets any better than that,” Waugh admitted. “To get a hundred off the last ball in front of your home crowd and playing the way I did today was fantastic.”For me it felt very much like my first Test hundred at Headingley in 1989, the way I saw the ball and hit everything into the gaps. I just wish I had more days like that than the bad days, it was almost the perfect day.”The shot had to be played off the last ball, I wasn’t really sure where it was going to be. The adrenalin was almost overwhelming and overpowering, but I felt that I had to get the hundred tonight.”I think it would have been a disappointment for the crowd and myself if I hadn’t and I might not have slept very well tonight. I just went along with the flow of the last couple of overs, I felt it was my day and it was meant to happen.”Waugh, who knows that his place is not guaranteed after the end of this series, is considering extending his career after playing so well today.”I’ve certainly enjoyed the way I’ve been playing in the last three or four innings. I feel as if I’m playing now the way I played when I was 19 years old, going out and having fun and just playing shots and it’s certainly a temptation to go on and have a bit of time playing like that.”You just have to assess things after the game and I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I’ve always said I want to carry on playing the game as long as I think I can improve and you’ve always got to aim for that perfect innings – it may never happen but it’s something I’ve always worked for and today was pretty close to as good as I can play.”Waugh insisted that he will have no trouble resuming his innings tomorrow despite this evening’s emotion.”You come back down to earth by looking at the match situation and we’re 50-50 at best at the moment. England still have their noses in front. It’s going to be a very difficult wicket to bat on last, it’s starting to break up now, and it will be hard to score 150 to win the game.”We’ve got to get up towards England’s first-innings total and try and get a lead and if we don’t we’ll have to bowl England out pretty cheaply to win the match.”England’s Alec Stewart, who is two years Waugh’s senior, was amongst the first to pay tribute after passing a milestone of his own earlier in the day, moving above Geoff Boycott as the third-highest England run-scorer after reaching 37 during his innings of 71. Only Graham Gooch and David Gower lie ahead of him.”I thought it was fantastic,” Stewart enthused. “People have been writing the fellow off, but today he showed what he’s been showing for 15 years. The bloke’s a cricketing legend in my opinion, and that today was the icing on the cake.”He’s a quality player, a quality person, and to do it on his home ground was perfect for him. He’s a fantastic cricketer. When you get to a certain age people want to write you off, but he’ll go on his own terms.”The Australian selectors will be picking a squad for the West Indies, and if they pick their best side he’ll go there as captain.”Stewart, 39, also indicated that he has no immediate plans to retire after his sparkling knock.”People have written me off,” Stewart added. “But you have personal pride and you go out there and do your best. That’s why we play and hopefully why I can keep playing.””When you play as long as you have you are going to go past certain people. But when you’re in the company of your Gooches and Gowers and Boycotts then it means you must be a pretty good player.”

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the government not to release foreign exchange to sponsors if India is banned from taking part in next month’s cricket World Cup, reports said.The court, ruling on a public interest litigation filed by former cricket great Kapil Dev and five others, said the tournament sponsors should also be restrained from telecasting advertisements on Indian channels.The order is, however, unlikely to be enforced amid reports that the International Cricket Council (ICC) will allow India’s leading players to take part in the World Cup despite changing the terms of their contracts.The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to announce later today whether it will agree to the compromise proposed by the ICC.Kapil, a former World Cup-winning captain, had moved the Delhi High Court last week to ensure India’s top cricketers took part in the tournament to be played in Africa from February 8 to March 23.In the event of the players being banned, the litigation wanted the finance ministry to withdraw all tax benefits to the tournament’s official sponsors hailing from India.At least three of the four major World Cup sponsors – Pepsi, Hero Honda and LG Electronics – have major interests in the lucrative Indian market.Some of India’s best known lawyers, former law minister Arun Jaitley, Kapil Sibal and Harish Salve, argued the litigation on behalf of Kapil and the other plaintiffs.ICC sources in London told AFP yesterday that Indian players could take part in the World Cup, but the ICC will not release the Cup bonus of “eight to nine million dollars” due to India until the dispute was resolved after the tournament.Sources also warned that if the BCCI failed to pay any compensation arising from its players’ altered contracts, it would be suspended from the ICC and so become a rebel cricket nation.India’s entire World Cup squad objected to the ICC ruling which prohibits players from endorsing non-official sponsors before, during and after the World Cup.

England’s hopes of having their World Cup match against Zimbabwe played at a ground in South Africa rather than Harare will be decided tomorrow by the World Cup technical committee. Originally the match was scheduled to be played today, but with the England and Wales Cricket Board making strong representations that it should be played at a different venue on the grounds of security, the ICC cancelled the fixture.Now the ECB hope that new evidence will persuade the committee that there is some substance to the death threats received from an organisation called the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe and they cannot simply be dismissed as a hoax, as claimed by the Deputy Commissioner of South African Police, Andre Pruis.He said that the organisation was not known to pose a serious threat and that he received several such letters himself on a personal basis. However, it was later revealed that the organisation was known to Interpol.The ECB will be making a new legal submission with evidence that they trust will convince the technical committee to reverse its earlier decision. If they can, there is a possibility that the game can be rescheduled and so the points from the match will not be forfeited but decided on a cricket field. They would also then avoid a heavy fine for breaking their contract with the ICC.The ECB have claimed that the security issue must be addressed, and this has received the full backing of the players, all of whom have signed a statement that will be presented to the committee.Left-arm spinner Ashley Giles was the man chosen to finalise the statement with the ECB’s head of legal affairs, Mark Roper-Drimie. He explained why."I held the views of a lot of the players so I got the job. It has been really tough; there have been some emotional meetings between the team, guys have spoken their minds and it has been hard for everyone. But that sort of thing does bring you together."The problem for the players now is to concentrate their minds back on the cricket to be played rather than the possible outcome of the Zimbabwe crisis. They play what is now their first match of the tournament on Sunday in East London against a Dutch side that caused India a few problems in their match yesterday.To help them in this aim, they have had an extensive session with sports psychologist Steve Bull, who has actually travelled with the team on previous tours. His job has been to get their attention re-focused on cricket so they go into the important matches against the Netherlands and then Namibia in the right frame of mind.Giles appreciates the importance of this saying, "How you think determines in many ways what is going to happen. Negative thoughts have a big influence on outcomes and the more positive you are the better chance you have of succeeding."Whatever happens with the Zimbabwe fixture, it is not in our hands now so we are working towards beating Holland and then Namibia. We need to try and beat Holland well, we have to play our best cricket and hammer them."We pretty much have to win every game and if we do that we have a great chance even without the Zimbabwe points."Having said that, the task would be made that much easier if England could play, and beat, Zimbabwe, but that opportunity now depends on the complicated legal issues that will be discussed around the conference table in Johannesburg tomorrow.Also present will be a delegation from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union led by their impressive president, Peter Chingoka. It is possible that the New Zealand claim to play their match against Kenya scheduled for Nairobi will also come under discussion.

If the building process is continuous, there is no need to re-build. Whenever I used to read about preparing the Pakistan team for the World Cup, I would write that the World Cup should not be seen as a cut-off point and there would be cricket after the World Cup.That we should not put all our eggs in one basket. There is certainly no need to panic and start throwing all the furniture out. At the same time, there is a need to find out why such a talented team underperformed, why there was such a rash of ‘lean patches’.We won’t get very far if we look for scapegoats. Cricket is a team game and it is the team that stands together or falls apart, together. Cricket does not accept the division of a team into senior and junior players.Nor does an arbitrary age-factor come into it. Look at Aravinda de Silva or Andy Flower or Javagal Srinath, for proof that he who is old in years may be young in hours, it is the spirit that must be willing.Last year, Pakistan went to Australia to play in an indoor tournament. Pakistan beat Australia and we kept dining out on that success and it became a term of reference even when it had become abundantly clear that it was that one swallow that did not herald the summer.We were called a ‘mercurial’ and an ‘unpredictable’ team and we accepted this, as if, it was a badge of honour. Cricket at the highest level demands consistency. An egg has to be good, it cannot be partly good.Consistency requires discipline and discipline cannot be imposed. A player does not have to be told or reminded that he has to stay focused. If it has to be drummed into him, then that player is in the wrong profession.Every team has a coach. Richard Pybus laments that there were players in the team who refused to learn. Learn what? Learning how to bowl line and length? Shot selection?A child is toilet-trained. Once trained, he doesn’t have to be trained over and over again. I happen to believe that at the highest level, there is no need for a coach. An Under-15 team may need a coach.At an international level, a player should be able to work out on his own what he is doing wrong. He doesn’t need a tutor. Self-improvement comes with self-discipline. Sachin Tendulkar needed a coach when he was a schoolboy.Imran Khan and Javed Miandad took Wasim Akram under their wing, but once launched, he was on his own. There seems to be no need for Pybus making statements. He does not come into the equation.Television coverage has been so good that we don’t want to be told what went wrong. We already know. Those who met me or telephoned me during our matches did not get a pep-talk but a brutal assessment that the team’s management was not allowing for local conditions, that it had brought a script with it and was not prepared to change it, that the body-language suggested that the players were not enjoying their cricket and, therefore, the team was either over-awed or not awed enough. It seemed a distracted team.Of course, there should be changes but only if we are rebuilding and if we accept that the process is a painful one. Unfortunately, such is the poor quality of domestic cricket, it is an unreliable nursery.Pakistan needs to concentrate on Under-19 and ‘A’ team tours, send the young players out to play under different conditions so that a bank of players is created and there should be an ‘understudy’ system, for every player in the national team, there should be one waiting in the wings. This should be an in-built mechanism.The decision whether a player should retire is something that a player needs to decide himself. He needs to heed his inner voice. But a player’s reputation should not warrant automatic selection. We too need to change the method of appointing a captain.Every player should be good enough to be in the playing eleven. A captain should be good enough to make it on his abilities, no bonus should be awarded if he is a good captain. A captain should earn his keep as a player.The word ‘accountability’ has lost its credibility. But we should be able to carry out a study of what went wrong and pinpoint the mistakes. The team was accompanied by a large number of officials. What was their contribution?We must get the World Cup out of our system but not before ensuring that the same mistakes are not made all over again. Perhaps, we need to change the mindset and introduce a performance-related system. Earn your keep!

Venue Event Event Day Capacity AttendanceBoland Park, Paarl12-Feb Holland vs India Pool A Match 9014 367419-Feb Canada vs Sri Lanka Pool B Match 9014 329825-Feb Holland vs Pakistan Pool A Match 9009 5508Buffalo Park, East London16-Feb England vs Holland Pool A Match 13428 484027-Feb Canada vs South Africa Pool B Match 13428 9279De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley16-Feb Namibia vs Pakistan Pool A Match 6055 292826-Feb Bangladesh vs New Zealand Pool B Match 6055 371204-Mar Kenya vs West Indies Pool B Match 12110 4587Goodyear Park, Bloemfontein10-Feb New Zealand vs Sri Lanka Pool B Match 13894 376622-Feb Bangladesh vs South Africa Pool B Match 13894 767203-Mar Holland vs Namibia Pool A Match 13894 2939Harare Sports Club, Harare10-Feb Namibia vs Zimbabwe Pool A Match 7357 389913-Feb England vs Zimbabwe Pool A Match 0 019-Feb India vs Zimbabwe Pool A Match 7326 5800Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban11-Feb Bangladesh vs Canada Pool B Match 19884 1048226-Feb England vs India Pool A Match 20010 1835303-Mar South Africa vs Sri Lanka Pool B Match 19993 19744Nairobi Gymkhana Stadium21-Feb Kenya vs New Zealand Pool B Match 0 024-Feb Kenya vs Sri Lanka Pool B Match 6036 6000Newlands, Cape Town08-Feb The Opening Ceremony 23591 2416909-Feb South Africa vs West Indies Pool B Match 23076 2418015-Feb Canada vs Kenya Pool B Match 22985 1259022-Feb England vs Pakistan Pool A Match 23097 2279628-Feb Sri Lanka vs West Indies Pool B Match 23020 19382North West Cricket Stadium, Potchefstroom12-Feb Kenya vs South Africa Pool B Match 10169 736420-Feb Australia vs Holland Pool A Match 10169 437627-Feb Australia vs Namibia Pool A Match 10169 5966Pietermaritzburg Oval14-Feb Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka Pool B Match 7093 290023-Feb India vs Namibia Pool A Match 7088 4805Queens Sports Club Ground Bulawayo24-Feb Australia vs Zimbabwe Pool A Match 6469 500004-Mar Pakistan vs Zimbabwe Pool A Match 6469 400028-Feb Holland vs Zimbabwe Pool A Match 6469 4860St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth13-Feb New Zealand vs West Indies Pool B Match 18106 965919-Feb England vs Namibia Pool A Match 18106 975602-Mar Australia vs England Pool A Match 18131 15987SuperSport Park, Centurion15-Feb Australia vs India Pool A Match 21156 1769423-Feb Canada vs West Indies Pool B Match 21156 1163001-Mar India vs Pakistan Pool A Match 21156 19679The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg11-Feb Australia vs Pakistan Pool A Match 30488 2708116-Feb New Zealand vs South Africa Pool B Match 30568 3130501-Mar Bangladesh vs Kenya Pool B Match 30623 17897Willowmoore Park, Benoni18-Feb Bangladesh vs West Indies Pool B Match 9812 432303-Mar Canada vs New Zealand Pool B Match 9812 5114Grand Total for matches in SOUTH AFRICA 569253 399435

It is not yet an epidemic but the loss of medium-fast swing bowler Shayne O’Connor to retirement is another blow for New Zealand cricket’s depth of resources.O’Connor, 29, announced today that he was withdrawing from international and first-class play to settle into a business venture in Alexandra in Central Otago.The news comes after O’Connor finished third on the New Zealand domestic wicket-taking list this year with 42 wickets at a cost of 18.71 runs. He had been a key performer for the improved Otago side which finished third in the State Championship.It is ironic that the players’ strike of October was aimed at keeping players in the game longer, yet in the last 12 months, New Zealand has lost experienced players like Adam Parore, Chris Drum and now O’Connor who all had, potentially, many years of cricket left in them.Their loss was not only felt in New Zealand’s international options, but also on the first-class scene. O’Connor was regarded in many quarters as a certainty to make the New Zealand team to tour Sri Lanka in April which is to be announced next week.In his 19-Test career he took 53 wickets at 32.52 and in 38 One-Day Internationals he took 46 wickets at 30.34. He played 72 first-class matches and took 275 wickets at 23.70, including 16 five-wicket bags and two 10-wicket bags.He first captured the public’s imagination during a tour of Australia in 1997/98 when he bowled Steve Waugh for 96 at the WACA in the second Test.”It could have slipped past his bat as a full toss, but it turned into a yorker. People said, ‘Gee, what a great ball’ and it grabbed some attention which was great for me,” he said.O’Connor had spent the summers of 2000/01 and 2001/02 recovering from a knee injury after probably the finest form of his brief international career in Africa in late-2000.As New Zealand’s bowling attack succumbed to injury, O’Connor bore an increasing workload. He was bowling faster as the result of some refinements to his technique, but no sooner was he back in New Zealand than he broke down and suffered for the remainder of the summer.O’Connor said the African tour had been the best of his tours.”I learnt how to play international cricket and fitted in fully with the New Zealand team. I was satisfied that I was accepted as a real international bowling option instead of giving me the ball and wondering what I was going to do today.”The tour was long, and helluva hard. I think if we had had a full-strength side we could have pushed South Africa but we struck them two months into the tour and were already tired whereas they were fresh and playing at home and much better off.”The programme we had was an injustice to the team. We were on tour for four months,” he said.A recall for last summer’s tour of Australia came to grief during the first Test at Brisbane and he missed out on being awarded a New Zealand Cricket contract for this year.O’Connor said the contract system was not a factor in his decision.”When I first played first-class cricket I didn’t think ‘Aw gee, I could make a lot of money out of this,” he said.”I made up my mind a long time ago. And once I started thinking about it I looked at it with a bias for affirmation for what I was thinking.”I was pretty determined to do well this year and I played as if I still wanted to play for New Zealand, to keep my name in the hat. But I still feel comfortable with my decision,” he said.O’Connor said he would be surprised if he played first-class cricket again.The injury he suffered after the African tour and his time to recover over two summers were not really a factor in his decision, although he said it was while injured that he began to think about life after cricket.”I never saw myself as having a long and illustrious cricket career, winning a county contract. That wasn’t for me.”I did what I wanted to when I set out in cricket and I’m thrilled with what I did,” he said.New Zealand selection chairman Sir Richard Hadlee was surprised by O’Connor’s decision.While giving nothing away about his thoughts of the chances O’Connor may have had of being part of the Sri Lankan tour, Hadlee did say that experience was an asset and at 29 years of age, O’Connor had that.O’Connor said that had he continued to play he felt he would have been more consistent in his bowling because with the experience he had he could contribute so much more.Hadlee said he respected O’Connor’s decision and that it seemed he wanted a change of lifestyle and had lost the motivation.”I’m sure he would have been discussed,” he said of the selection meeting that is taking place on Monday. The team would probably be announced on Wednesday, he said.

Over the weekend the prospects of Chris Read being named as the successor to Alec Stewart as England’s wicketkeeper as soon as the second Test were being talked up in many newspapers. But on Sunday Read damaged his hand during Nottinghamshire’s National League game against Sussex, and an X-ray has revealed that he has broken his thumb.That rules him out of contention for the Chester-le-Street Test, as well as making him extremely doubtful for inclusion in the squad for the matches against Pakistan and the NatWest Series which is announced on Thursday (May 29).”It’s really bad luck for Chris, because he’s made an excellent start to the season,” Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket told the BBC. “I believe if he was fit he would have been named as England wicketkeeper. I hope once the thumb heals he will be involved in the national set-up.”

The Wisden Verdict

Somerset lost to Warwickshire by 19 runs at Taunton
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Trevor Penney launched Warwickshire to the largest total of the day as they ran out comfortable winners over Somerset. Penney, in his benefit year, turned back the clock with an electric 52 from only 28 balls, and with help from Collins Obuya (34 not out), Warwickshire raced to 188 for 7. Somerset’s reply got off to a good start with Keith Dutch smacking 70 from 52 balls, but once Jamie Cox was out for 47, wickets continued to fall regularly in their search for quick runs.

Hampshire beat Sussex by 5 runs at Southampton
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James Hamblin picked up the Man of the Match award with a quickfire 34 in Hampshire’s nail-biting win over Sussex. A large and partisan home crowd saw a blistering start from Hampshire as Hamblin and Derek Kenway (35) smashed an opening stand of 66. However, Sussex hit back with some good bowling from Mark Davis (3 for 13), and chasing 154, they needed 10 off the last over, but were foiled by their old boy Ed Giddins who bowled a tight last over in an exciting match … and there’s still a concert to come.Surrey beat Middlesex by 4 wickets at The Oval
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James Ormond took the first five-for in the Twenty20 Cup with an impressive 5 for 26 from his four overs. Ormond dismissed Ed Joyce and Simon Cook in successive balls as Middlesex made 155 from their 20 overs. For Surrey, Ian Ward (31) and James Benning (27) got them off to a good start before the middle-order saw them home with four balls remaining.Worcestershire beat Northamptonshire by 1 wicket at Worcester
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Worcestershire’s Stephen Moore cracked a match-winning 39 not out at No. 8 in a scintillating one-wicket win with two balls to spare over Northamptonshire. After David Taylor had crashed 46 from only 20 balls, Worcestershire were well on course to better Northants’ 150, but then Ricky Anderson struck four times in quick succession as Worcestershire crashed to 84 for 6. However, debutant Moore made a name for himself with his cameo knock as Worcestershire sneaked home in a tense finish.Durham beat Nottinghamshire by six wickets at Chester-le-Street
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Jason Gallian’s blistering 62 from 48 balls for Nottinghamshire wasn’t enough to prevent Durham racing to their target of 158 with five balls to spare. Vince Wells picked up 3 for 39 in Notts’ 157 for 7, and then Nicky Peng, who blasted 49 from 29 balls, and Ashley Thorpe (35*) led the way in Durham’s victory.

A recurrence of a rib injury has forced Craig White to play as a specialist batsman for the rest of the season, further ruining any hopes of making an England comeback.White was examined by the Yorkshire physio on Tuesday and they now plan to re-assess his condition at the end of the summer. He told the BBC, “I’ll play as a batsman and if I get back bowling, fine, but if not, I’m going to have to sit down and really think about where I’m heading."He added: “I’m 33 and I think I’ve got a lot of cricket left in me yet – it’s just that when you keep getting injured it does get you down, and there’s only so much you can take. I’ll just re-assess at the end of the summer – see where I am.”White, who underwent surgery on his ribs at the start of the season, left the field during Yorkshire’s National League match against Surrey on Sunday. “It has been sore since I started bowling against Somerset at Taunton, but I knew and I was just hoping it would gradually get better,” he told the Yorkshire Post. “I tried to bowl a bouncer at Mark Butcher but as soon as I had released the ball I had excruciating pain in the same area. It was as if someone had stabbed me with a knife.”

The BCCI has asked the Delhi High Court to reverse the decision that set aside the five-year ban imposed by them on Ajay Jadeja. It has also accused the arbitrator who ruled in Jadeja’s favour of bias.After Jadeja had appealed against the BCCI’s ban to the Delhi High Court, the court had appointed Justice JK Mehra to to rule on the case. Mehra had decided in favour of Jadeja, contending that K Madhavan’s report, which formed the basis of the BCCI ban, was "illegal and against the prinicples of natural justice".The BCCI’s counsel, CS Vaidyanathan, referred to Mehra’s ruling as a "perverse finding". He mentioned that Mehra had disallowed cross-examination of Jadeja on his telephone calls to Uttam Chand, a Chennai bookie, printouts of which were already on record.Vaidyanathan further hit out at Mehra’s comment on "natural justice" by pointing out that the BCCI counsel’s request to re-call Jadeja for further cross examination was rejected by Mehra, who did not deem it necessary to offer a reason for his rejection. Was this not in violation of the principles of "natural justice", queried Vaidyanathan.Vaidyanathan went on to clarify that Madhavan’s role had been merely to investigate the matter, and not to take any action. That onus was on the BCCI’s disciplinary action committee, which had, in accordance with the prinicples of "natural justice", given a full hearing to Jadeja before deciding to impose the ban.Jadeja’s counsel, PP Malhotra, was not quite as convincing as his counterpart. He began the proceedings by submitting hotel records to the court in support of his contention that the BCCI counsel had earlier sought adjournments despite being in town, and had thus tried to vitiate the proceedings. The court ignored him. It asked Vaidyanathan to file a synopsis of his submissions within a week. It also directed Malhotra to file a synopsis of his arguments a week after Vaidyanathan submitted his.July 15 has been fixed as the date of the next hearing.