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Previous Stories Why Cricketers Are More Sporting Than Golfers A cracking tournament in Dhaka New Zealand cricket is on track Taranaki Ignore the Distractions An Extraordinary Sporting Family Another New Cricketing Experience Dave Eats His Crow - A First Time For Everything Black Caps Are Not Strictly For The Birds Not Beefing, Just Disappointed There Are None So Blind That Will Not See A Matter of A Satisfactory Start Horse Laughs and Crocodile Tears A Slow Over Rate Means A Slow Team
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The final few days before the opening of the 1999 World Cup are upon us and most teams are now in England gaining pre-cup practice in matches all over the country. One of the more intriguing reports is of that splendid leftarm pace bowler Charminda Vaas, who took nine wickets for only seven runs in a practice match against a Lancashire League second XI. Those are impressive figures whatever the standard. They make a joke of Ian Botham's plaint that the England World Cup players should not be playing for their counties at present, in case they hurt themselves! Botham was never one to wrap himself on cotton wool so it is staggering he has made this suggestion about the current crop. Are they that precious or is Both just looking for an angle? Graham Thorp came up with a fine century for Surrey, Robert Croft had runs and wickets for Glamorgan and Andrew Flintoff, a dynamic impact player, made a spectacular hundred in 80 balls only a few days ago. England may be quite a force on their home grounds. Current Odds The bookies seem to think so anyway for they have England at 6/1, with only South Africa (11/4), Australia (3/1), and Pakistan (9/2) at shorter odds. Then India is at 8/1, Windies 17/2, Sri Lanka 9/1 and NZ 16/1. Zimbabwe at 66/1 are an attractive outsider if you are looking for a long shot. I wouldn't touch the rest. Litigation Meantime Steve Waugh and a scribe from the "Australian" are facing libel charges from the Chief of Police in Barbados. After seeing that clip where the bottle whizzes a millimetre away from Waughs's head I reckon they should be suing the cops, not the other way round! It was very nearly a potential fatality and I don't care if he wants to sue me also for saying so. The security at some of the world's cricket grounds is lamentable. Appointment The appointment of Andrew Eade as cricket's development officer for the Pacific for the International Cricket Council marks another forward step in this enterprising young man's career. Andrew has a distinguished career as a premier player (a very fine fielder and stubborn middle order bat), who went on to manage the Suburbs club, then the Herne Bay Rackets Club and recently is coach of the Auckland Aces women's cricket team. Andrew is an experienced and much travelled cricketer who has toured the West Indies and USA with Ken Sandford's New Zealand Ambassadors. As an old boy myself of Ambassadors' tours (I went to Asia in 1985) I can vouch for the value of these tours in broadening one's cricketing knowledge. Another Suburbs man to feature is the promising opening batsman Richard Scragg, who has played first-class cricket for Auckland and may be remembered in this column for his nine hour innings that won Waitakere the Xerox Cup against Manawatu last year. Scraggy was New Zealand Player to Lord's the previous year and has now been named in Sport Waitakere's Passport to Gold programme. Look out for him as a future star. Talking of Stars My nephew Russell Crowe has summoned the able-bodied members of his family to attend the film location at Malta where he is in process of shooting the high-budget movie "Gladiator". You will be able to read daily reports of this while I am on tour. Don't think I'm going for a junket. I will be playing of course. Remember I'm the only member of the family still playing cricket. Male Bonding It's hard luck for the distaff side and especially my niece Suzie Pearce who was with us for the weekend when we gathered to finalise plans for this trip. Suzie is captain of the Wellington hockey team and already at age 24 a veteran of 67 tests for New Zealand. It was fascinating to hear her speak of the hockey team's plans to go for gold at next year's Sydney Olympics. I'll keep you posted on this column, from right inside (or rather her position of left inside). Send Dave some feedback. | ||||||
