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Nuwan Kulasekera and Lasith Malinga, two young fast bowlers from Galle, were the surprise inclusions in the 22-man squad announced today for Sri Lanka’s forthcoming series against England.Kulasekera and Malinga performed well for Sri Lanka in the recent Emerging Trophy tournament against Pakistan and India, and they have carried their form into the current domestic competition. Last weekend the pair combined to help beat title-contenders NCC – who included Hashan Tillakaratne, the Test captain, Kumar Sangakkara and Upul Chandana – by an innings.Meanwhile, Russell Arnold, Nuwan Zoysa, Lanka de Silva, Michael Vandort and Rangana Herath have also been rewarded for impressing on the recent tour to South Africa and Kenya. De Silva has been picked ahead of Prasanna Jayawardene, the wicketkeeper, and may even make it to the starting XI if Romesh Kaluwitharana fails to recover from a hamstring injury.Kaluwitharana has been named in the squad subject to fitness and de Silva, who batted well in South Africa, was chosen ahead of Prassana Jayawardene because of his better batting ability.The surprise exclusion is that of Jehan Mubarak, who scored centuries in South Africa and Kenya. Mubarak’s place has gone to Chamara Silva, a middle-order batsman who has been in the runs this season. “We have got reports that Mubarak is shaping up well and we don’t want to shatter his confidence by playing him too soon," Lalith Kaluperuma, the chairman of selectors, said. "He will be sent to India with the Sri Lanka A team next month and if he shows good form there we will recall him for the Test series against England.”The one-day squad will be picked next week.England, who are currently touring Bangladesh, are due to arrive in Sri Lanka on November 13 for a series of three ODIs and three Tests.Squad Hashan Tillakaratne, Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Romesh Kaluwitharana (subject to fitness), Lanka de Silva, Upul Chandana, Kumar Dharmasena, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dinusha Fernando, Nuwan Zoysa, Nuwan Kulasekera, Chamara Silva, Tilan Samaraweera, Dilhara Fernando, Michael Vandort, Rangana Herath, Lasith Malinga, Russel Arnold.

Simon Jones suggested he could be back playing cricket in two months time as his recovery from a horrific knee injury continues to make good progress.He had a major operation to rebuild his knee in February after he tore the ligaments in the joint during that sickening tumble in Brisbane on the opening day of the 2002-03 Ashes series.Talking in Cardiff after a brief bowl in the nets with his leg heavily-strapped, Jones said: “Things are going well and I’m happy.”Reflecting on the injury, he said: “It was an absolute nightmare but it’s all in the past and I am looking to the future. I’ve had a chat with the physio and the medical staff around here and maybe I could play again at the end of August.”However, after such a serious operation, an August return might be pushing it a bit, and Jones did sensibly offer a note of caution: “If I’m not right I won’t play, but I’ll be looking to go to Australia for the winter.”

The ECB Southern Electric Premier Cricket League has been sent reeling by a third successive weekend of wet weather.All 17 of Saturday’s scheduled matches were either postponed or abandoned – play did begin on five grounds – leaving clubs counting the cost."I suppose the players did have the consolation of watching Saints in the FA Cup final on television," remarked Premier League chairman Alan Bundy."But, generally speaking, its been a pretty horrendous start, particularly after the superb pre-season weather we enjoyed in March and April, when the pitches would have been hard."Bundy revealed that Saturday’s complete washout meant that 26 out of 47 scheduled Premier League matches so far this season had fallen foul of the elements."And in the 21 matches that actually finished, 12 have been affected by the weather, with games determined by faster overall scoring rates."Worst hit have been 2001 Premier champions BAT Sports, who have so far managed to play just 11 overs and 40 minutes league cricket this season."Our first game at Bournemouth was called off, then the Portsmouth game was abandoned after less than an hour."We mutually agreed that yesterday’s game at Andover could be put back 24 hours so the lads could watch the cup final, but, not surprisingly, London Road was waterlogged after the rain of the previous two days," moaned BAT skipper Richard Dibden.Bournemouth have fared little better, playing – and significantly – beating South Wilts in only one of three scheduled starts.Their visit to Portsmouth on Saturday was postponed, as was Bashley-Rydal’s home game with Liphook & Ripsley.It was Bashley’s first postponement – the Foresters having beaten Calmore, but lost to Havant in a 29-over match.Both of Lymington’s home matches at the Sports Ground have been called off.They were due to have entertained Old Tauntonians & Romsey.New Milton have managed to start both of their Premier Division 3 games, but Saturday’s visit to Havant was abandoned with Milton 118-4 (Richard Wilson 36) after 36 overs.Flamingo’s decision to delay their home match with Waterlooville paid dividends – the Corhampton club winning a low scoring affair by four wickets at The Holt.Dave Wright (5-18) and Stuart Brittan (3-30) combined to dismiss Ville for 70 – a total Flamingo hardly looked capable of bettering when Andy Love (4-18) ran through the top order.But cousins Kevin Brewster (24) and Ian Hitchings (19) lifted Flamingo from a desperate 25-5 to within touching distance of a crucial win.Mr Bundy pointed out that the bad weather hits cricket clubs hard, particularly in the pocket. "Most of the Premier League clubs only open their bars at weekends when there is cricket on."Places like Bashley, Havant, Lymington and Romsey are real social focal points after matches, with players from three or four teams all congregating after games."On a nice summer’s day, the places are buzzing, with vital income going across the bar. No cricket means no money – and that’s worrying," he said.On Saturday, Calmore Sports got started at Lower Bemerton and were 64-2 when their visit to South Wilts was called off after 21 overs.Newly promoted Gosport Borough had reached 44-1 at Sparsholt when the rains came down, while Ventnor were well placed at 107-2 when play against South Wilts II was abandoned.Play also began at Hungerford and New Milton, before the weather took a winning hand.

Remarkable as it might appear, Australia took the result but England took heart from the last session of the fourth Test. Needing just 99 to win on the fifth morning, Australia lost five wickets in reaching the target with moments of stirring batting, intense excitement, umpiring controversy and, yes, heroic efforts from England’s two bowlers.If England had been disappointed by their failure to take wickets at the close of the fourth day, they had to wait no time at all for success at the start of the fifth. Matthew Hayden hooked at a short ball from Andrew Caddick and substitute fielder Alex Tudor took the catch.While Justin Langer was content to settle in after that blow, Ricky Ponting took the attack to England. He went for his considerable array of strokes from the off and had hit three fours and a six as he raced to 30 from 35 balls taking full toll off bowling that was a little too short. Having said that, it was a short ball from Steve Harmison to which Ponting played something of a half-hearted pull that touched the glove on the way through to James Foster.Three balls later, Harmison produced a beauty to Damien Martyn that took a faint outside edge on its way through to Foster and suddenly Australia were 58 for three. They needed only another 49 runs to win, but there was still time for drama.It came in the 12th over of the morning, bowled by Harmison to Steve Waugh who had four unconvincing runs to his name at the time. The fifth ball climbed past the outside edge and went through to Foster who looked inquiringly but said nothing. Marcus Trescothick at first slip raised his arms, but there was no more by way of an appeal until the fielders saw a replay on the big screen. Then Foster appealed, but umpire Dave Orchard said not out.Next ball, Waugh drove off the back foot low into the covers where Hussain clutched the ball and threw it up in a celebration that was only cut short when he noticed that Orchard had signalled a no ball. Waugh did not notice and had to be called back when well on his way to the pavilion. He returned to crash the last ball of the over back past the bowler to the boundary.After some more uncomfortable moments, Waugh tried to leave a ball from Caddick that looped off the glove wide of Mark Butcher at second slip who took off to hold a spectacular catch. Four balls later, Langer was hit on the pad by Caddick, everyone went up and Russell Tiffin pointed his forefinger to the sky. Langer out for a calm 24, but a replay showed that the ball had pitched outside leg stump.It was extraordinary entertainment, especially bearing in mind the fact that England had just two fit fast bowlers. Both Caddick and Harmison gave their all but Australia had the depth of batting to reach their objective. There was still time for a few moments of excitement before Gilchrist hit the winning runs and for once in the series there was a real contest.It took a long time in coming and the result was as expected, but at last England have something positive to remember as they go to Sydney for the final Test. Australia needed their steadiest nerve to head north with the chance of a whitewash still very much on the cards.

New Zealand Cricket’s web site, Wisden CricInfo New Zealand, had another record season over the summer.A total of 61,265,127 page impressions were made for the six months from October 1 to March 31.That was up from 47.5 million last year, and ahead of the record of 52.2 million of the summer of 2000/01.December’s traffic on the New Zealand site of 35,558,347 was a record month, ahead of the previous best of 23.2 million recorded in March 2001 when the Pakistan Test series was played here.The January figure this year of 20,452,633 was the third best month in the New Zealand site’s history.Both Test matches against India broke records for the matches most-followed in New Zealand. Previously the second Test against Pakistan at Christchurch in March 2001 with its 8.2 million impressions was the best.However, the first Test against India, at the Basin Reserve this summer resulted in 10,313,781 impressions and the second Test at Hamilton 12,383,355!The fifth One-Day International, played at Wellington and which saw 4,575,738 impressions broke the record for ODIs of 3.4 million for the fifth and deciding match against Pakistan in Dunedin in February 2001.A feature of the season was the 943,699 impressions for the World Series of Women’s Cricket.Each of New Zealand’s domestic association had increases on their sites during the summer which produced a net overall increase of 60%.Northern Districts increased by 174%, Wellington 66%, Central Districts 60%, Canterbury 59%, Otago 54% and Auckland 23%.The number of New Zealanders visiting the Wisden CricInfo site is also on the rise. An average of 51,000 unique users were recorded each month during the 2002/03 season, up 6% from 2001/02.

When India beat England in style at Chepauk way back in February 1952, hope must have risen in the patriotic Indian heart that the country which had won freedom without firing a bullet was now ready to take on the world in cricket too, with nary a bouncer bowled in anger. Indian cricket had discovered its own ahimsa – the magic of spin – as Vinoo Mankad with 12 wickets in the match, and Ghulam Ahmed with four, bowled India to a famous innings victory. But the hopes were belied when India toured England the very next season and were drubbed 3-0. The West Indies tour that followed provided further confirmation that India were a force to reckon with only at home.The pattern continued throughout the 50s and 60s, when India registered some fine victories at home, though not necessarily series wins, against England and Australia; the West Indies continued to be invincible even on Indian soil. The Chepauk Test of January 1967 against Gary Sobers’ men produced exhilarating cricket from the home team, with sensational batting by the likes of Farokh Engineer and Ajit Wadekar; more significant, however, were the exploits of the new spin combination of Erapalli Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who were to weave magic against all comers in home conditions for years to come. But India again came a-cropper in England in the summer of 1967, dashing hopes that our cricket had at last come of age.Srinivas Venkataraghavan was the fourth component of what came to be known later as the spin quartet – a misnomer, really, since only three of these world-class spinners played together most of the time – and these men dominated Indian cricket for over a decade. Ironically Venkataraghavan, the man who, among the foursome, figured least in Test match cricket, was a key player in India’s first triumphs in the West Indies and England in 1971, wins that promised to be the ultimate turning point in the nation’s cricket fortunes.

But 1974 proved that nothing had really changed in Indian cricket, with India crashing to 42 all out at Lord’s and losing the series rather ignominiously. Once again, a home series helped restore the balance in India’s favour. A stirring fight was staged against Clive Lloyd’s West Indies, then on the verge of becoming an all-conquering combination; the Carribbeans did experience a hiccup or two along the way, not the least of which was a Port-of-Spain Test that India won, chasing over 400 in the fourth innings.India regained some lost pride against comeback captain Bobby Simpson’s Australia, sans those who defected to Kerry Packer’s World Series, losing the series in a closely fought 2-3 result. A brilliant away win against England under Kapil Dev’s captaincy in 1986 was fashioned – for the first time in Indian cricket history – by seam rather than spin, but that was the penultimate time India won a series abroad, the 1993-94 triumph in Sri Lanka being the only bright spot in the depressing succession of abject surrenders that followed. Kapil’s Devils had earlier shown tremendous resolve in drawing a series that they deserved to win against Allan Border’s Aussies in Australia in 1986-87. Although India were involved in the second tie in Test history the following year at Chepauk, Indian cricket abroad went steadily downhill from that time onwards.The year 2001 raised hopes again. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid came together in ahistoric record-breaking partnership to give India her most improbable, ifnot her greatest, victory of all time at Kolkata. In Harbhajan Singh shehad apparently discovered a spinner in the mould of the greats of the past to partner the strong-of-mind Anil Kumble, a veritable demon on Indian tracks. The young sardar has since shown that he still has some way to go before he is to be bracketed with the best in the business.In Laxman, we hoped that we had found a batsman who could dominate the best bowling attacks in the world and make batting look as simple as driving aFormula One car in a video game. Joining the world’s best batsman, SachinTendulkar, and the other two champion batsmen in the Indian side, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, he added an exciting new dimension to the Indian line-up. But our joy was to be all too short-lived. In South Africa and elsewhere, the Hyderabad batsman has consistently exhibited a streak of recklessness that has bordered on the irresponsible.The Indian vice-captain, technically among the most accomplished in the world, played outstanding cricket of great character against the Australians, but since then he has shown a distressing tendency towards Hamletian indecision, especially after the ludicrous attempt to convert him into an opener bombed.The Indian captain too flattered only to deceive, his match-winning innings in the Kandy Test proving to be no more than a flash in the pan. And, even as we learned to overlook his rough edges and appreciate his ability to lock eyes with his opposite numbers in, figuratively speaking, fight-to-the-finish staring contests, he has shown inconsistency in the horses he backs, sometimes in defiance of the selection committee, and deficiency in common sense while ringing bowling changes that defy logic.The Master Blaster is yet to win a match abroad off his own bat, something that both Brian Lara and Steve Waugh have done for their teams. While there is no doubting the little man’s clear superiority over his nearest rivals in terms of sheer class, dedication and commitment, we, the Indian nation, starved of heroes and heroic deeds, still look up to him in vain to perform a miracle or three.After the early promise of the Javagal Srinath-Venkatesh Prasad combination fizzled out some years ago, India suddenly found a surfeit of riches in the pacedepartment. Even on Indian wickets, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra showed enough talent and fire to promise a bright future for Indian bowling, especially with Kumble returning to match fitness and Harbhajan Singh proving to be an equal partner. Once again, we were to be disabused of any delusions of Indian bowling grandeur, with injuries curtailing the left-arm seamers’ progress. The one Indian on a genuine comeback trail, Srinath, has also been plagued by injuries.The mirage of a solid opening pair in Sadagoppan Ramesh and Shiv Sunder Das also vanished, with the southpaw taking an untimely sabbatical to nurse his back. By accident, we found a more-than-able replacement, but unfortunately, Deep Dasgupta is still a less-than-competent wicket-keeper. Predictably, instead of showing patience with the gutsy youngster, critics are already baying for his blood.The year promised much but delivered precious little. All the old doubts and weaknesses remain, compounded by indecision and confusion in the administration. The Mike Denness controversy has done nothing to enhance India’s image, although it was a clear case of a team under siege by a roguereferee overreacting to an unpleasant situation. Instead of winning the sympathy of the rest of the world, India has managed to earn the dubious tag of rebel nation. The much-awaited contract system has been postponed, and Ranji Trophy reform is still a year away. Fast domestic wickets continue to be a mirage, and while India has a crop of good medium-pacers, quality spinners, especially the left-arm variety, will soon become extinct, thanks to an uncaring system that refuses to give them opportunities.The beginning of the 90s was marked by much optimism for the future of Indian cricket. No such positive feeling for the first decade of the new millennium is justified in the light of the 2001 experience.

Australia qualified for the ICC Under-19 World Cup final against South Africa on Saturday but the West Indies with a little more patience might have pushed them a lot closer than the final 93-run margin of victory in today’s semi-final.By confining the Australians to 252/8 when they batted first in cool overcast conditions on the reserve day at Bert Sutcliffe Oval, the West Indies gave themselves a chance.They had pulled the Australian scoring rate back from a possible 280-plus and, while the job remained in front of them, they got into a good position at 102/2 in the 22nd over.But just as the West Indians had utilised spin to peg back the Australians, so the Australians did in even more masterly fashion when, between the 20th and 40th overs, the West Indies were only able to score 61 runs.The innings’ of the two sides were similar in construction, based largely around high third-wicket partnerships. In Australia’s case theirs, between captain Cameron White and opener Craig Simmons was worth 84 runs but, having come on the top of 84 runs scored by the first two wickets, it had a much more solid base.Simmons, who was named man of the match for his 84 off 110 balls, played a fine innings, hitting eight fours and a six, while White kept the score moving through the middle of the innings, playing some deft late cuts during the early part of his innings and then working the ball around the ground more later. He was finally out caught from Alcindo Holder’s off-spin for 64.The West Indies stand of 82 runs was more by necessity after the two openers, including the big-hitting Donovan Pagon, were out with only 20 on the board. Tonito Willett and captain Narsingh Deonarine combined well to not only get settled but to get the scoring rate moving at an acceptable level.It was then that White made his decisive move. The introduction of left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty for the 20th over, followed a few overs later by the arrival of left-arm chinaman bowler Beau Casson had the desired effect.Deonarine was first to go for 40 and then Willett tried to hold the innings together but eventually departed the eighth man our for a lovely 83 off 123 balls.Whereas earlier, the Australian lower order had a chance to hit out to build on the earlier work, the West Indian middle and lower-order had not only to survive but also keep the scoring rate moving.With such superbly tight bowling, they had no show. Doherty bowled his 10 overs through to finish with two for 26, Casson took two for 28 off nine and Jarrad Burke came into quickly polish off the end of the innings with final figures of two for 17.Ten overs remained after the last eight West Indies wickets had fallen for 57 runs.White said afterwards while it was disappointing not to get more runs if someone had said before the game they would get 250 he would have been happy with that.He was disappointed to get out when he did. He was a little concerned once the West Indies got to the position of 102/2 but was delighted with the way his bowlers responded.Despite the fact the side had to wait an extra day and would have only tomorrow to prepare for the final, they were still feeling fresh and were “ready and well prepared.”Australian coach Wayne Phillips said he had been delighted with the way the team had gone throughout the tournament and they were justifiably going into the final feeling confident.”There has always been tremendous rivalry between Australia and the West Indies and today was no exception,” he said.West Indies coach Gus Logie said they were happy to be in the semi-finals, and while they hadn’t made the final they had done well, especially when the side’s batting had rarely clicked during the tournament.They had hoped to put up a good fight against the Australians and while beaten he felt there were some significant lessons learned because the tournament had been good preparation for the future by the players.He said that while the West Indies don’t have the quality of fast bowlers of their recent history, the wickets in the West Indies were more conducive to spin bowling nowadays and it was not unknown for teams at youth level to have good spinners, a feature reflected in the side’s bowling in Christchurch.He believed the Australians would win the tournament.”They have been quite consistent and have set a standard for us all to follow.”Logie also thanked New Zealand Cricket and the ICC for staging the tournament.”The grounds and facilities have been tremendous. We will have very fond memories of this tournament. Having everyone staying at the one venue here made it a nice little community and it was a good thing for players to experience this sort of thing,” he said.

Politicians faced with crises crawling out of the woodwork in the manner that has afflicted Shane Warne this week would have applied some spin to managing the fall-out, but the greatest spinner of them all can’t extract any advantage from the flat track of controversy.While all the allegations against him are still in the unproven category, there’s a fair bit of combustion building up amid the smoke of suggestion. Troubled not only by allegations of phone-text harassment of a 45-year-old South African divorcee, Warne is a key participant in an alleged blackmail case against Cricket Australia that involves his tongue-kissing a teenager, whose uncle allegedly tried to get CA to match a magazine offer of $5000 for the story. Now, a stripper has alleged that she had been having an affair with him until a month ago.Compounding this is the revelation from a former employee at Cricket Australia, or the Australia Cricket Board as it was then known, which suggested that Warne had been the subject of almost daily complaints for several years.To cap it all, the Australian Government has finally entered the saga, over the arbitration ruling that allowed Warne to play charity cricket, and to practice with the Australian team.The Minister of Arts and Sport, Senator Rod Kemp, who stayed out of the row that developed over a week ago when the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) was highly critical of the ruling that allowed Warne to play charity matches, told Australia’s parliament yesterday that the Australian Sports Commission would be speaking with Cricket Australia about the matter. He wanted to see Warne prevented from training for club, state or country.”It is the advice that I have received that playing in charity teams and taking part in practice matches with the national team is contrary to the anti-doping code,” he said. “I believe that those (anti-doping) codes should be enforced and I believe they will be enforced.”Meanwhile, James Sutherland, CA’s chief executive, confirmed the statements made by Peter Young, the general manager, to Wisden CricInfo last week, that a review of the drug policy will be undertaken before the start of the season.

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is to discuss India’s withdrawal fromthe Asian Test Championship when it meets in Sharjah next month.The ACC meeting slated for Feb 13 will discuss imposing penalties onthe pattern of the International Cricket Council, but their immediateimplementation appears unlikely.India had refused to play Pakistan in Lahore for a match of thechampionship last year and later withdrew from the event. Theirdecision led to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) suffering heavyfinancial losses.The meeting, to be chaired by ACC president, Lt. Gen Tauqir Zia, whoalso heads the PCB, will also decide on setting up a permanentsecretariat. The UAE, Malaysia and Nepal are the three venues inconsideration.The development programme from April 2002 to March 2003 will also beconsidered for approval.The ACC moot will be preceded by a meeting of the Asian CricketFoundation (ACF) on Feb 12. The agenda of the meeting which is to bechaired by Jagmohan Dalmiya has not been circulated yet.Besides the four chief executives of the cricket boards of Pakistan,India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Abdul Rehman Bukhatir of theCricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) will also be in attendance.

Tomorrow sees the start of a biblical encounter at Harare Sports Club as Zimbabwe take on South Africa, with David having suffered serious reverses in the artillery department that enabled him to win his original battle three thousand years ago.Zimbabwe are severely handicapped by the loss of Heath Streak’s three leading pace-bowling assistants during the winter series: Brighton Watambwa, Andy Blignaut and Bryan Strang. True, South Africa have lost Allan Donald, but they were preparing for life without him anyway. The treadmill of modern cricket is wearing down players, especially pace bowlers. Zimbabwe players have had only the months of May and August free from international cricket in the past year – even then they were in training for the next series – and it is a source of relief that Heath Streak’s suspect knee has not yet seriously rebelled against the pressure.The selectors could have brought together, instead, the trio of pacemen that brought Zimbabwe successive Test victories against India and Pakistan three years ago. Streak and Henry Olonga opened the bowling with fire, while Pommie Mbangwa tied up the batsmen superbly while they rested. Had any one of these three been missing on those two occasions, Zimbabwe would almost certainly not have won.Olonga was in the squad and reported fit, but he has not played much cricket for several months and was not at his best. Mbangwa was not in the squad; selectorial policy during the last year, though, has been to prefer pace and the potential to bowl wicket-taking deliveries to accuracy, and Mbangwa appears to have fallen badly out of favour without doing much wrong. Gary Brent is another medium-pacer who served the country well in the past but has seemingly been forgotten. Preference was given to the greater pace of Travis Friend, while Doug Hondo is set to make his Test debut. Last season Hondo took eight wickets at 40 each in five first-class matches, and will be under pressure to prove that he merits a place.The batsmen are all fit – at the time of writing – with Andy Flower’s hand having made good progress without being completely right; he is such a valuable player, though, that he was always certain to play barring accidents. Tatenda Taibu was in the squad, however, were it to be decided that Flower could not keep wicket.For once the selectors had a problem in which of their batsmen to leave out. Of the first six in the order, Alistair Campbell, the two Flowers and Guy Whittall are long-established players and permanent fixtures when fit. Hamilton Masakadza could hardly be dropped after his debut century against West Indies. That left room for two out of Dion Ebrahim, who has been opening with Campbell in recent Tests, Stuart Carlisle, returned from injury, and Craig Wishart, who showed the best form of the three during the winter. Carlisle, a fixture throughout last year and the man whose fighting innings won that crucial Second Test against India, was the man genuinely unfortunate to be left out. Had he not broken his finger in the field against West Indies, Masakadza would not have been given a chance.If the pitch is prepared to suit the home side, it will probably be pretty flat with any intentional help to be given to the spinners rather than the pacemen. Memories are still fresh of that disaster two years ago when the pitch was watered too much overnight, giving an inordinate advantage to the team that won the toss. In such situations, as Napoleon observed, God is on the side of the big battalions, and the South African pacemen enjoyed an early Christmas. Zimbabwe have only one specialist spin bowler in their squad, though, with Raymond Price selected instead of leg-spinners Brian Murphy, still not fully fit from his ankle injury, and Paul Strang.Little need be said of the South African team, except that their ability to steamroll weaker sides has never been in doubt. But we need no computer analyst to find a pattern in each of Zimbabwe’s last five Test series (two matches each), since April last year, excluding that against newcomers Bangladesh. In the first match of all five series, Zimbabwe have lost, mainly due to poor batting, with seven wickets being the smallest margin of defeat. Then, in the Second Test, they have fought back strongly, defeating India, drawing three times, and only New Zealand have been able to force home a second victory.The players will have to guard against a repetition of that pattern against South Africa. It will not be easy to do better, as they are a stronger team than any of the others Zimbabwe have played in the last 18 months. They would appear to have no hope of victory – but that was what everybody said before that famous World Cup match of 1999 at Chelmsford.Both teams are perhaps less well-prepared than they would have liked, although Zimbabwe have been in training for the past three weeks. With Carl Rackemann in Australia, former national coach Dave Houghton has been in charge of the cricketing side. Captain Heath Streak said that they had a good practice match last week and had been working hard in the nets.Zimbabwe are very respectful of South Africa, he said, adding: “But I believe that if we can put together a team effort we certainly have a chance to give them a scare and win a game.” It will always be unlikely, and Zimbabwe’s best chance is if the South Africans become subconsciously overconfident. But if the Zimbabweans all play to their potential they have the ability to give any team in the world a tough game.South Africa has traditionally been the team Zimbabweans have supported over the years, apart from their own. This stems from the years, prior to independence in 1980, when Rhodesian cricket, as it was then, was part of the South African Currie Cup – as it was then! Players from this country, like Colin Bland, John Traicos and Jack du Preez – now the only former Rhodesian and South African player still living in Zimbabwe – played Test cricket for South Africa.That is no longer the case, for a variety of reasons. Despite the proximity of the two countries, there is a widespread feeling that South Africa have not supported Zimbabwean cricket as well as they should have. Tomorrow’s match will be only the fourth Test between the two countries – of the senior Test-playing countries, only Australia have played Zimbabwe less frequently. In one-day cricket, South Africa stand at the bottom of the list among Zimbabwe’s more senior Test-playing opponents, with a mere 12 meetings between the sides.While the Zimbabwe Board XI participates in the UCBSA Bowl competition, promotion to the SuperSport series has been denied again, although at least they have been accepted for the one-day provincial series next season. And although South Africa are very keen for touring teams to play against their development sides, they did not want to play any warm-up matches against young Zimbabwean players.Another factor is the perceived arrogance of many of the South African players. Several Zimbabweans have commented on how difficult it is to get to know them off the field of play, in contrast to the Australians, who are always friendly off the field, however much they may try to kill them on it. Andy Flower feels he made a little progress towards improving relationships between the teams during his recent term as captain, but there is clearly much work to be done.So Zimbabwe will be especially keen to come out from under the shadow of their powerful southern neighbour and at least earn more respect for their deeds on the field. The matches should be well supported by the public, and perhaps the South Africans may yet win back some of the affection they have lost in Zimbabwe in recent years.There has been talk in certain quarters of cancelling tours to Zimbabwe in view of the political state of the country, but this would only hurt the cricketing community without affecting those causing the crisis. There has also been concern about the safety of the players, but this is needless, as they will not be visiting any parts of the country where they could be endangered. Despite the background, there is every reason to expect that this tour will take place as peacefully as every other tour to the country and that the South Africans will enjoy their stay – but Zimbabweans hope not too much on the field of play.Zimbabwe team for the First Test: Alistair Campbell, Dion Ebrahim, Hamilton Masakadza, Craig Wishart, +Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Guy Whittall, *Heath Streak, Travis Friend, Raymond Price, Douglas Hondo.