Martin Snedden is moving from the decision-making bunker out into the front lines – he will be going to Pakistan with the New Zealand team next week. Snedden, who has been easily the most beleaguered cricket administrator in New Zealand’s history, had always intended to be in Pakistan for the last two matches.He has faced a string of unusual situations that many sports administrators would never face in a career. These include not only the international disasters which have affected tours, but also domestic problems, most notably last summer’s players’ strike.Snedden, who was on the scene as a player when New Zealand first experienced frustrations to tours caused by bombs, in Sri Lanka in 1987, is taking a “see-it-for-yourself” stance by opting to travel with the team when it returns to Pakistan next week.He met with the team’s officials in Auckland today after their return from India and discussed the prospect of John Bracewell, New Zealand’s coach, also returning to Pakistan with the team.

Thomas Odoyo, one of Kenya’s successes in international cricket, has been ruled out of their side for the 2004 West Indies Carib Beer Series with a knee injury. Odoyo had an operation on his left knee last Saturday, and will be sidelined for two months.Steve Tikolo leads a squad that features most of the members of the side that stunned the cricket world by reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup in March.Among them is the legspinner Collins Obuya, whose five-wicket haul lifted Kenya to a shock victory against Sri Lanka. Obuya later played a first-class match in Barbados against the touring Australians before a stint with Warwickshire in English county cricket.The Kenya selectors have also called up Under-19 players Maurice Ouma, Alfred Luseno and Rageb Aga.Kenya play their first match of the Carib Beer Series against WestIndies B from January 9 to 12. Their other opponents are Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Windward Islands, and Guyana. They are using the series as a developmental exercise as they continue to press for Test status.Kenya squad Steve Tikolo (capt), Martin Suji, Peter Ongondo, Maurice Odumbe, Hitesh Modi, Brijal Patel, Lameck Onyango, Alfred Luseno, Kennedy Obuya, Maurice Ouma, Francis Otieno, Collins Obuya, Ravindu Shah, Rageb Aga.

As India notched up the winning runs, Nagraj Gollapudi spoke to a few former Indian players who have been part of Indian teams winning abroad – either in Tests or significant one-day international tournaments.

Ajit Wadekar
My best memory of this match would be Rahul Dravid’s innings – responsible, calculated and built on minimal risks. He was the pivot. The aim of getting close to the Australian total was the first priority and he was the best man to accomplish that task. This was a convincing victory against the best side [in the world] and should boost the future part of our tour. It’s a well-balanced setup, which is clicking as a unit, and the best Indian side ever.The win takes me back to 1971 against England at the Oval, where the sequence of events was almost similar to those in Adelaide. As that victory was a morale booster for us, the same will apply to Sourav Ganguly’s side. But his team should guard against complacency – there will be mad media hype and players shouldn’t get carried away in this euphoria.Karsan Ghavri
We achieved victory in 1981 [against Australia, at Melbourne] on an uneven wicket, whereas this Adelaide Oval pitch has been firm. The teams that toured Australia then and now are completely different: we had strong allround talent then, while batting is the strong point of the present Indian team. Our batsman successfully chased the massive Aussie first-innings total and piled enough runs for our bowlers to have a go at the Aussies. And that worked. I thought it would end as a draw, but Ajit Agarkar’s spell turned things our way.Yuvraj Singh
Hard work has been the chief characteristic of this New India. It’s a great day in Indian cricket, and we should be proud. When they had taken five wickets in their second innings, my hopes soared, and I was confident that we could do it. Rahul [Dravid] and [VVS] Laxman batted superbly and showed the art of maintaining calm in the testing conditions. They have just displayed the maturity of the side, which has been consistently performing.Chandu Borde
It’s a tremendous achievement, and a morale booster for Indian cricket. This win has shed the inferiority complex that existed against the Australians. All the talk about Australia being the best, and the world beaters etc, will not bother us anymore. One bright point I have noticed in this team is the bowlers – the medium pacers especially. They did their homework properly and implemented successfully their dressing-room strategies by playing on the weakness of the opposition.Krishnamachari Srikkanth
I can’t believe it. It was an extraordinary performance. Who could believe that a team, chasing 556 in the first innings, that had collapsed to 85 for 4, would rebuild valiantly under pressure to achieve one of the tightest victories in Test cricket ever. From the Indians’ point of view this victory is better than the 2001 Kolkata triumph, considering that this was an away win – and in Australia. One of the chief strong points of this side is the solid middle order, which has the likes of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, whose partnerships over the years have become a major worry for the opposition.Navjot Singh Sidhu
Occasions will not make men strong or weak, they will show what mettle they are made of. This win has enhanced a tarnished Indian image. Indian cricket has received a huge shot in the arm. Only if they go on to win the series will this be considered India’s best-ever Test win.Nagraj Gollapudi is sub editor of Wisden Asia Cricket.

Responding to Heath Streak’s call to revamp one-day cricket, Sourav Ganguly said he saw no reason to change the existing format.”I believe one-day cricket is doing just fine, and there is no reason why it should be tampered with,” Ganguly said. “It could be said about the one-day games of the past that they could become flat at certain times, but the one-bouncer rule has brought a competitive equation to it.”Ganguly is a formidable presence in the one-day game, with 9049 runs with 22 centuries at an average of 43.11. But in Tests, where the bowlers hold more sway, he is less authoritative.The one-bouncer-an-over rule was implemented to give bowlers an element of surprise in what has become a batsman-dominated game. “Now a good bowler has the freedom to test out a batsman. It is not as if the batsmen are having a free run all the time,” Ganguly continued. “But for the fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs, a fielding side and a bowler are free to do whatever they want to on a cricket field.”Streak had suggested that the 15 overs could be spread out over the innings, to sustain interest in the middle overs. “If I could use the 15 overs in blocks of, say, five overs each, it would allow me to experiment more. It might help change the quiet period you often get in games between 14 and 40 overs.”

Greg Chappell seconded Streak’s call for changes. “I believe one-day cricket could retain its interest if there is a contest between bat and ball. Without it, the game could turn out to be too flat.”Limited-overs cricket has come under fire for being repetitive, with interest slacking off during the middle overs of an innings. What is interesting is that, for a while, the one-day game was regarded as Test cricket’s saviour. But the recent pattern of high-scoring result-oriented Tests has brought more people through the turnstiles, and increased television ratings.

Australia 359 for 5 (Hayden 126, Martyn 67, Symonds 66) beat India 151 by 208 runsScorecard

In a performance which was, if anything, even more ruthless than the one they put up in the 2003 World Cup final, Australia crushed India by 208 runs, clinching the VB Series in style and proving, quite emphatically, that they remained by far the best one-day side in the world. In the process, they inflicted on India their second-worst ODI defeat (after the 245-run loss against Sri Lanka in Sharjah in 2000-01), and ensured that a series which had so many memorable moments for India ended in dismal fashion.The match ran almost exactly to the script that was written at Johannesburg almost a year ago. For Ricky Ponting, who smashed an unbeaten 140 in that match, read Matthew Hayden, who struck a beautifully paced 126 here. Damien Martyn played the ideal foil for the second time with a fluent 67.Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke then gave a brutal exhibition of power-hitting in the slog overs, as 110 came off the last eight overs, lifting the total to 359, exactly as many as in the World Cup. The best India could have hoped for from there was to salvage a semblance of pride, but even that turned out to be too much to hope for as the top five were back in the hutch within the first 15 overs.The Indians were on the back foot right from the start, after Ponting won the toss and opted to bat on a shirtfront. Already handicapped by the absence of Anil Kumble and Ajit Agarkar, the Indian attack had little in their bowling armoury to challenge the might of the Australians, and showed all the fatigue of having spent three gruelling months on tour. By the time the slog overs approached, Sourav Ganguly, like in the World Cup final, could only watch helplessly and wait for the 50 overs to be bowled out.Adam Gilchrist and Hayden began in typically frenetic fashion, bringing up the fifty in the eighth over, as both Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji, in an attempt to cramp the batsmen for room, drifted on leg stump and were duly punished. India briefly mounted a comeback, getting rid of Gilchrist and Ponting in quick succession, but then came the 173-run second wicket stand which laid the perfect platform for the final assault.Hayden’s was a typically characteristic innings, punctuated by plenty of clunky blows at the start off the seamers – his fifty took just 37 balls – and then some meaty slog-sweeps and down-the-pitch hoicks off the spinners. Equally importantly, he nursed a circumspect Martyn back into form during the crucial middle overs, keeping the runs coming at a fair clip and allowing Martyn to find his groove by milking the attack for singles.

Realising that the pitch didn’t have much pace or bounce, Ganguly pressed the slower bowlers into service, and while that briefly reduced the run-glut briefly, regular service resumed as Hayden tonked a couple of sixes off Virender Sehwag and Murali Kartik, whose nightmare tour continued to get worse. Martyn gained in fluency too, reaching his fifty off 58 balls, and then unveiling some sumptuous square-drive and flicks.The third wicket partnership finally ended when Martyn holed out to Hemang Badani at midwicket off Pathan (230 for 3), and though Hayden went soon after, missing a too-ambitious reverse-sweep off Sachin Tendulkar (248 for 4), that proved to be a blessing for Australia, for it brought on stage Symonds and Clarke.Pulling and flicking the ball with awesome power, the pair put together a tremendous exhibition of power hitting. It wasn’t as if Ganguly didn’t try out different bowlers: Pathan, Tendulkar, Kartik, Nehra and Balaji all tried their luck, and they all disappeared for more than ten per over, as the pair added 99 in a mere 7.5 overs as the Indians became increasingly ragged in the field. Nehra finally landed a yorker on target to dismiss Symonds, but by then the demolition job had already been done to perfection.Thoroughly demoralised by the utter carnage in the afternoon, the Indians came out to bat knowing that the only question that remained was the margin of defeat. There were the odd sparks of defiance – Sehwag clipped the first ball of the innings, from Jason Gillespie, over fine leg for six, while Tendulkar played a couple of delightful flicks and punches off the back foot, but both were done the Gillespie-Lee combine – Lee, fielding at short fine leg, picked up a stunner when Sehwag attempted to hoick one to leg, and then picked up a more straightforward catch to get rid of Tendulkar.From there it went rapidly downhill for India, as 49 for 2 became 59 for 6 in the space of eight overs. VVS Laxman spooned a catch back to Lee, a dismissal which needed the third umpire to confirm it wasn’t a bump ball, Rahul Dravid was run out by Martyn’s direct hit for 0, ending a record 120-match run without a duck, Ganguly slapped a drive straight to point, and Yuvraj Singh nicked one to the keeper. The rest of the batsmen helped themselves to a few meaningless runs, but the contest was over well before Brad Williams got through Balaji’s defences to put an end to the Indian misery.

After police had charged at disgruntled crowds buying tickets during the one-dayers, it was a change to see only a few dozen at the ticket counters before the second Test at Lahore. According to a report in Dawn, people were saddened by their team’s performance, and weren’t turning up. But one comment, from a presently disillusioned amateur local cricketer, summed up the feeling: “I have been disappointed from the performance of the team and I will again show any interest for the series if my team stages a comeback.”There’s a fifty-fifty chance of that happening, Wasim Akram writes in his column for The Times of India. But first, the pitch should have bounce and carry. Once that’s done, all Pakistan have to do is make sure their bowlers use it well. It’s the bowlers’ ability to move the ball both ways that can make the difference.By dropping Saqlain Mushtaq, Pakistan have signalled their intent to field four fast bowlers, like the West Indian team of the ’80s, Ravi Shastri writes in the same paper. “But to succeed,” he continues, “the Pakistan bowlers will have to show control and class like the West Indian greats.” He pondered whether the request for a green pitch at Lahore didn’t come too late, as the Indians had opened a large gap between the teams in the first Test – on a strip the Pakistani bowling attack didn’t look too happy about.”If the wicket is slow, how can you hit sixes in the third man region?” Javed Miandad comforted Andy Atkinson. According to Atkinson, even Sachin Tendulkar had given him a `thumbs up’ for the pitch. Atkinson fumed to The Times of India that even now no one had spoken with him about the kind of pitch they wanted. “And if they lose, then they will come and put the blame on me.” He added that Irfan Pathan and Mohammad Sami would move the ball around because they pitched it up, and that the strip would do a bit after the second day.”It will be faster than the wickets that you have seen on this tour so far. It will afford movement to the bowlers,” Shahryar Khan, the chairman of the PCB, said. Though this one would help the bowlers, the last pitch wasn’t bad. Pakistan lost not because of the wicket, but because they dropped catches.”The lack of urgency is pretty evident,” Shahryar said, helpfully adding, “Even a non-cricketing person like my wife can see that.”So could Rashid Latif, who attributed the players’ listless body language during the one-day series to matchfixing. Rameez Raja was fuming, according to . “Rashid only brings up the matchfixing issue when he is not in the team.” And then, he turned on Sarfraz Nawaz for his allegations. “Sarfraz must be the most irresponsible cricketer living today. He has been an embarrassment to the cricket establishment for many years.”Meanwhile, Pakistan’s foreign office had a more novel accusation to deny. The News reported that the Islamic Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alleged that the Test defeat was a gesture of goodwill from Pervez Musharraf, the president, to help Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India’s prime minister, win the elections. A spokesperson for the foreign office refuted the claim. “Winning or losing is not part of confidence-building measures.”Javed Miandad had a unique confidence-building measure for his own team. The Nation quoted Miandad as saying, “Some one should hit a six like I did in 1986 to make this contest more even.”

Ricky Ponting is expected to recover in time to bat, after suffering an upper back injury on the second afternoon at Kandy. Ponting had leftthe field in the morning after complaining of severe pain andbreathlessness.”He has strained muscles in his upper back,” said Alex Kontouri, Australia’s physiotherapist. “It is a lot better now after quite a lot of treatment and we expect him to bat tomorrow. I would be more concerned if it was in the lower back – the upper back is easier to manage.””We have been treating him every half an hour to keep his back moving and make sure it does not stiffen up. We will do the same in the night, give him some anti-inflammatory [tablets] and start treatment early tomorrow.”Australia are hopeful that he could come in at No. 5: “He has really improved and the plan is for him to bat next, but the key test for him will be how he wakes up tomorrow.”

Scorecard

England ended their long tour of the Caribbean on a high note with a five-wicket victory in the seventh and final one-dayer at Bridgetown. After Ramnaresh Sarwan boosted West Indies with a sparkling unbeaten century in their total of 261 for 6, England, thanks to a rasping 82 from Marcus Trescothick, cruised home with 16 balls remaining to level the series 2-2.After Michael Vaughan won the toss and inserted the opposition, England started as they went on with a disciplined display with the ball and in the field. Sarwan threatened to blow them of course with his 104 not out, but an early fall of West Indian wickets, followed by a romping start to England’s innings meant the result was rarely in doubt.Trescothick’s rocket-fuelled innings of 82 from 57 balls set the platform for England’s victory. After Vaughan was unluckily given out caught behind for 14, Trescothick took charge. Not afraid to go the ariel route, he belted out shot after shot, displaying impeccable timing and placing. He raced to his half-century from only 36 balls, slapping nine boundaries in that time. He was particularly harsh on Ravi Rampaul and Merv Dillon. He frequently waltzed down the track to Rampaul, whipping him over and through the fielders on both sides of the wicket. Dillon got even rougher treatment, as he went for 17 in one over. Trescothick smashed him for three boundaries in that over, the last of which notched up his half-century. Dillon looked a broken man, going for 59 from his first eight overs.Ricardo Powell was next in the firing line. He was caressed for two consecutive cover-drives, and Trescothick launched him for a huge six over mid-on in the final ball of the 15th over. However, just as Trescothick was threatening to score one of the fastest one-day centuries, he was stumped down the leg side by Ridley Jacobs off Chris Gayle (123 for 2). But, by that stage, the damage had been done.Trescothick’s typhoon meant that England could afford to take their time and do it in singles from then on. The main driving force was Andrew Strauss, who quietly went about his business on the way to his second consecutive one-day half-century. He had no choice but to take a back seat while Trescothick went bananas, but he then took responsibility while others fell around him. Content to work the slow bowlers in the gaps, he slowly began to open up with a few boundaries, including a delicate cut off Dillon, and a thumping pull of Ian Bradshaw. It would have been fitting if he had finished the job off, but he chopped Bradshaw onto the stumps for 66 with 12 overs remaining (218 for 5).In that time, Rikki Clarke, who promoted to No. 4, failed to make an impression as he tamely patted Bradshaw to Dwayne Smith at short midwicket for 9 (146 for 3). Andrew Flintoff then drove Bradshaw through the covers, but he was caught and bowled by Sarwan, driving the ball on the up where the bowler took a good low catch (169 for 4). At that stage, England threatened to choke, but Paul Collingwood made sure it was West Indies who swallowed their pride.He took advantage of some tired and dispirited bowling – and some shaky fielding – in his unbeaten 49. He heaved Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s part-time legspin for six, and pulled Sarwan for two fours. He added an unbroken 44 with Chris Read, who thumped three fours towards the end to hurry England to victory before Collingwood hit the winning boundary in the 48th over.England’s win was thoroughly deserved, but it overshadowed another eye-catching knock from Sarwan, who at least gave his side a chance of victory after they had slumped to 90 for 4. While the other batsmen struggled to come to terms with the quick and bouncy pitch, Sarwan stood out and held the innings together. He scored 13 fours in all, cutting and driving beautifully, and running intelligently between the wickets.

He brought up his half-century from 60 balls and then continued to play shots all round the wicket. He smacked two imperious fours from Stephen Harmison to go the 90s, hit two more off Darren Gough to go 99, and scrambled a single to go through to his second one-day century. His innings also included a vital partnership of 69 with Smith, and that stand revived West Indies just when it looked like a mini-collapse was on the cards.England’s first breakthrough came in the sixth over when Chanderpaul clipped Harmison to James Anderson. Powell was then run out by a marvellous direct throw from Flintoff at mid-off (57 for 2), and Gayle, who looked in the mood for runs with four fours and a six, was undone by an Anderson yorker for 41 (57 for 3).Sarwan and Lara set about repairing the damage. They had added a watchful 33 until Clarke struck gold with Lara’s wicket in the 23rd over. Attempting to guide the bowler down to third man, Lara nicked the ball too near to Read, who flew to his left to take a stunning catch (90 for 4). Smith announced his arrival by flicking Clarke out of the ground, St Lucia-style. He again impressed with an entertaining cameo of 39 from 36 balls, including three fours and two sixes, before he was trapped lbw by Gough (159 for 5).Dwayne Bravo again kept a cool head, keeping Sarwan good company for 18 balls until he played on to a full ball from Flintoff for 11 (193 for 6). Jacobs chipped in his own solid style, clubbing three fours and scoring a valuable, unbeaten 31 to lift West Indies further, but in the end it never looked enough.

Less than a year after its inception, Twenty20 cricket continues to gather momentum. Earlier this week Cricket Australia announced that it had agreed in principle with the England & Wales Cricket Board to play a one-off international during next year’s Ashes tour, and now Victoria’s leading clubs are preparing to vote on whether to launch a midweek version of the game next season.A report in Melbourne’s Age explained that the clubs would vote on the idea on June 21. “It’s slather and whack, 20 overs – there’s something happening every ball,” Peter Binns, Victoria’s cricket manager, told the newspaper. “I think the bowlers hate it because they get smashed all over the place but it is a really exciting concept. We think it gives clubs a great opportunity on a Tuesday night, for example, to make a real evening of it, invite the local mayor down and supporters and sponsors.”The proposal being discussed is for six groups of three, organised by regions, in a month-long evening competition. The Age added that the final might even be played under lights at the MCG.Twenty20 was launched last summer in England and attracted considerable media interest and large crowds. South Africa followed suit in March, with similar success, and yesterday Pakistan announced that the format would be incorporated into their domestic schedule in the coming season.

Digicel, a mobile-phone company, have decided to offer unprecedented incentives in an attempt to drag West Indian cricket out of the morass of mediocrity in which it has been marooned for much of the past decade. The new sponsorship deal will see the players awarded bonuses for victories against top-notch opposition, and comes soon after the West Indies hit rock-bottom, losing at home to England for the first time in 36 years.”We wanted to ensure that we achieved the best performances on the field,” said Roger Braithwaite, chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board. “We wanted to move to a situation where players were getting rewards,” he added, according to a news report on the BBC Sport website. “There was a feeling that not going down that road had perhaps impacted on the side.”The Board and the players are currently negotiating the terms of the agreement, though Braithwaite ruled out the possibility of fines for below-par performances. It is expected, however, that the team will get bonus payments for victories againt any side ranked higher in the ICC’s Test or one-day championship table. That means just about any victory will be lucrative, with the West Indies abysmally placed at eighth in both tables.The agreement will come into effect next January, just before the team takes on Australia. The five-year deal with Digicel is worth over £10.9million over the next half-decade, and it means that Cable & Wireless, the previous sponsors whose deal expired recently, are out of the picture.