ASHISH BAGAICaptain Right hand high order bat and wicket keeper. The most experienced player in the squad with previous trips to U15 Challenge Cup ( England 1996), WICB U19 Championship in 1998 and 1999 , Bermuda U18 , 1998 and 1999 . Captain of the Americas Youth Team in Sri Lanka World Youth Cup 2000. Captain of Canadian team at the Americas Championship in Bermuda 2001.Wicket keeper for Canada’s Senior Team . Most recent appearance in the ICC Trophy 2001 in Toronto .NATHAN RICHARDSVice Captain Right hand all rounder, middle order bat, medium pacer. Previous International experience includes 1999 Nortel WICB U19 Championship (Barbados) and the Americas U19 Championship in Bermuda 2001.CHRISTOPHER ARGUNENLeft arm leg spinner. Toured with Ontario Schools (Sir Garfield Sobers tournament , Barbados 2000) and with the Americas Championship U19 team , Bermuda 2001.SOHAM ANJARIAOne of the youngest members of the squad , Soham is making his first International tour. Left arm leg spinner and right hand bat.UMAR BHATTILeft arm fast bowler , left hand bat. Umar toured previously with the Ontario Schools team , Sir Garfield Tournament ( Barbados 1999) at the young age of fifteen. First appearance for Canada.TRAVIS GANGARight arm medium pacer, and left hand middle order bat.Previous tours include the Sir Garfield Sobers Tournament 2000 and the WICB U19 Championship.AJAY MINHASRight arm leg spinner , right hand middle order bat. Previous tours include Barbados and Bermuda. Captained the Ontario Schools U19 at the Sir Garfield Sobers tournament in Barbados (2000).ANEEL NAUTHRight hand opening bat, right arm medium pacer. Tour Bermuda U18 1999, Sir Garfield Sobers Tournament 2000 and the Americas Championship ( Bermuda 2001).DEVIN PERSAUDLeft hand opening bat , right arm medium pacer. Previous tours to Bermuda and Guyana 2000 and the Americas U19 Championship (Bermuda 2001)GIBRAN RAHAMANRight hand opening bat. Previous experience 1999 U18 tour to Bermuda. Sir Garfield Sobers tournament 2000 (Barbados) and the Americas U19 Championship 2001 in Bermuda.GLEN ROBERTSRight hand opening bat and reserve wicket keeper.International tours WICB U19 Championship in Guyana 2000 and the Americas U19 Championship in Bermuda 2001.JONATHAN ROBERTSRight hand bat / Wicket keeper/ right arm medium pacer . Jon’s first cap for Canada was last year at the Americas U19 Championship where he took 7/21 against Argentine to break the Canadian Youth record for best bowling performance.JASON SANDHERRight hand bat , right arm off spinner. Jason has previous tours to the WICB U19 Championship in Guyana and the Americas U19 Championship in Bermuda.PAUL ZIESMANNRight hand all rounder , middle order bat , off spinner. Toured Bermuda U18 in 1999 as the vice captain. Member of the 2001 U19 Americas Championship Team.MANAGER – O. (RON) DIPCHANDRon is the Executive Director for Manitoba Cricket and has been active with junior projects in that province. He is also the National Coaching Coordinator and served as the youth team’s coach for over ten years before taking on the manager’s job for the Americas Championship. He is a former member of Canada’s Senior National Team.JEFF THOMASJeff had a very successful year in 2001 coaching the Senior Canadian Squad to a third place finish in the ICC Trophy , thus qualifying for the 2003 World Cup. He followed that up by guiding the Youth team to the Americas Championship in Bermuda and a place in the 2002 YWC in New Zealand.Jeff is a native of Australia playing and coaching in Queensland. In the off season he has played and coached for the Toronto Cricket Club

Paceman Brett Lee will be the only Australian Test player turning out for his state this weekend as his battle-weary team-mates rest ahead of the world championship showdown against South Africa.Captain Steve Waugh admitted his team lacked intensity in the Third Test against New Zealand and it is hoped that a few days off will allow several key players to overcome injury and put spark back in the side.Lee is keen to play and will get an early look at the Adelaide Oval ahead of the first Test against the world No.2 South Africa starting Friday week.But while he turns out for NSW in an ING Cup match against South Australia fellow Blues, Steve and Mark Waugh, and Glenn McGrath will sit it out along with SA quick Jason Gillespie.West Australian batsmen Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist have passed up the chance of a hit-out against the Proteas’ attack in the four-day tour match at the WACA starting Friday.And Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting will skip Sunday’s one-day match between Victoria and Tasmania at Bellerive Oval.National chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns today said there had been no direction from his panel to rest players and it was left up to the individuals and their states.”Brett’s fit to play and he feels an extra bowl won’t hurt him,” Hohns said.”He’s (Gillespie) done a lot of work, he may well be in that category (that needs a rest).”But, despite Australia’s failure to capture the rain-affected series against New Zealand, captain Steve Waugh believes the team only needs to lift five per cent to return to its winning ways.”We could have been better. It’s just a small thing – it’s only a five per cent thing that we need to lift,” Waugh said.And he predicted that Australia’s premier bowlers Warne and McGrath would bounce back against South Africa after misfiring so far this summer.Warne returned just six wickets at 71.66 while McGrath took five at 65.4 as Australia failed to bowl New Zealand out once in the three Tests.Waugh said Australia’s middle order had failed to perform in the summer’s opening Test series pointing the finger at himself, brother Mark and No.6 Damien Martyn.”They (Warne and McGrath) are human, like the batsmen, and we can’t perform in every Test match,” the skipper said.”There’s been a few things written saying the guys are off the boil and that.”But it’s hard to play at your peak in every Test match.”We dominated the first two Tests (but) here we didn’t play as well as we could have.”I’m quite confident they’ll do well against South Africa. We just have to make sure we lift for South Africa because if we don’t we’ll get beaten.”

The Natal Dolphins retained the Discovery Knockout Challenge Trophy with a last ball tie against The Strikers at Newlands on Wednesday evening.Needing five runs off the last ball, Dolphins batsman John Kent pulled a delivery from the Strikers’ Grant Elliot to the deep mid-wicket boundary for four thereby forcing a tie. The Dolphins retained the title having lost fewer wickets in the final.Earlier the Dolphins scored a 7 run win over the Titans. The Dolphins batted first and totalled 180 for four in their 20 overs. The Titans came within 7 runs of a victory thanks to a fine 80 from captain Gerald Dros.The Strikers caused a major upset when they easily beat the fancied WP side by 36 runs to reach the final. The Strikers totalled 157 for seven in their alloted 20 overs. WP totalled a measly 121 for nine wickets in their 20 overs.

This has been a sleepy week for business, so please accept our apologies for a rather brief magazine this week. The main item is an interview with Zimbabwe’s captain in Sri Lanka, Stuart Carlisle, who talks about that tour.Carlisle is also likely to continue as Zimbabwe’s captain in India, as the official captain Brian Murphy’s ill fortune continues. He was recently struck down with appendicitis, and in any case the hand injury that forced his return from Sri Lanka is so serious that it will take another three or four weeks before he can even start bowling again with it – and then he will need to work to regain his bowling form.It was hoped to include a report on the Zimbabwe Board XI’s trip to Benoni to play Easterns B; an interview has been booked with Guy Whittall, who returned to top form with a century in the three-day match, but it was not possible to schedule it before the deadline for this issue, so that will have to wait until next week. Potted scores for those matches are included below, courtesy of the ZCU.A draw in the three-day match will not help our chances of winning the Bowl competition, although the team is still top of the table. The worrying thing is that we are finding difficulty in bowling our opponents out more cheaply than ourselves. The players often point to the flat batting pitches that they seem to encounter everywhere these days, but in that case we should still be seriously outscoring our inexperienced opponents. That has not happened in our matches so far and, as in the one-day games, our successes come through run-chases. The lack of penetrative bowling is a matter for concern.

ZIMBABWE BOARD XI v EASTERNS `B’Three-Day Game 25 – 27 January 02Match DrawnBoard XI 1st Innings 290 all out (93.1 overs)A Campbell 65, R Sims 37, G Whittall 100Easterns `B’ 1st Innings 329 all out (106 overs)R Price 30 – 5 – 100 – 4, R Sims 24 – 3 – 63 – 2Board XI 2nd Innings 289 all out (95 overs)D Ebrahim 93, R Price 71, M Vermeulen 51One Day Match – 28 January 02Board XI won by 3 wicketsEasterns `B’ 223 for 4 wickets in 45 oversR Price 9 – 0 – 33 – 2Board XI 224 for 7 wickets in 44 oversD Ebrahim 31, R Sims 48, G Whittall 43, P Strang 46*

England are taking the view that they can still win the National Bank Series 3-2 as they head into tomorrow’s vital match at McLean Park in Napier.One man looking to make a difference for the side as it seeks a change of fortune is Ben Hollioake who has recovered from a nagging knee injury and is hopeful of taking his place when the final selection is made.Hollioake, who last week signed for another year with his county Surrey, said the loss in Wellington had been disappointing.”I’m sure the boys will hold their hands up and admit to that. It’s gone now and there’s still three games to play here and I suppose in New Zealand a lot of people will laugh but we think we can win 3-2,” he said.”One-day cricket is strange.”A month ago everyone was saying how brilliant New Zealand are. Two weeks ago they weren’t good at all, now they’re brilliant again.”With us after India everyone was saying we’re on the up and up and now, after two games, we’ve been written off a little bit. Yet I’m sure if we can turn it around,” he said.”We’ve been working very well together, there is a good team spirit, everyone likes each other, that’s not the be all and end all but it does help, everyone helps each other with the work load and gets on and does the business.”Hollioake said it had been an annoying tour for him with injury coming at just the time he felt he was cementing his place in the side.The knee injury had been looked at by specialists and revealed no serious damage but it was suggested he needed 10 days of proper rest, and not the bowling in the nets he had been doing at practice.”It just came on in India and got worse and worse,” he said.During games it had been fine as the adrenalin did its thing but once he cooled down the problems started.”It feels like it’s gone, it feels like it’s finished with now. It was a bit of a strange injury because I could run at a relatively full pace but every time I bowled and stamped my foot down I was getting a hyper-extension in my knee which was causing it to collapse,” he said.Hollioake said he was definitely available for tomorrow and was excited at the prospect of being selected, although that choice was up to the selectors ultimately.The World Cup next year was very much in Hollioake’s thinking and he felt the selectors and team management were 90% along the way in assessing which players they felt would be part of the campaign.”I’m sure if someone performs horrendously in the next three games it will have an effect on their selection in the World Cup. I can’t comment for sure but I’m pretty positive they’ve mainly got their mind made up,” he said.The tri-series in England next summer was another important step for him and it was part of the build-up of games that have greatly increased the number of internationals the English are playing now.”England have been a bit slow catching that up but they’re starting to do it now,” he said of his feeling that around 20-25 matches in a year would be more appropriate for the side.”If I’m selected and do well I want to get myself selected for next summer’s tri-series. If I wasn’t to be selected for that then my hopes of playing in the World Cup would be pretty severely dented,” he said.Hollioake said he had been very close to signing with Warwickshire for the county season but decided to stick with Surrey.

Andrew Penn has never known a day, in a bowling career hampered by injuries and disturbed by very public crises of confidence, like the one he enjoyed at the Basin Reserve today – where Wellington beat Canterbury by 31 runs.Penn surfed the cricket equivalent of the perfect wave on a day filled with many extraordinary and some historic events to achieve career-best figures of eight for 21 and to wreck Canterbury’s chase for a victory total of 152. His return was the fifth-best by a Wellington bowler in all first-class matches.Penn destroyed Canterbury’s innings in one long spell of perfectly-tuned fast bowling with the new ball. He had never bowled a longer spell in his first-class career – his physical condition would often prohibit it.But on this magical day at the Basin Reserve, Penn couldn’t have been separated from the ball with a crowbar. He bowled and he bowled – and all of his overs in that opening upwind, into a stiff northerly breeze.Wicket after wicket fell as he maintained a difficult length, as he found seam movement and irregular bounce.When he was finally rested, reluctantly, after some 17 overs, he had taken seven for 16 and Canterbury was 33/7.When Penn finally retired to the boundary, Canterbury’s innings began to slowly revive. Having survived his onslaught, they crawled from the trenches and launched a counter attack on Wellington.Peter Fulton and Ryan Burson joined in a partnership for the eighth wicket which was troublesome at first and then passed, through degrees, to frustrating, threatening and finally terrifying. Matthew Bell worked his bowlers as Penn rested but could find no way of separating a pair who were steadily playing Canterbury back into the match.The target of 152, which had seemed unusually imposing at the start, had begun to seem achievable and Wellington’s nerves had again come under assault.Finally, with hope abating, they made a crucial breakthrough through Matthew Walker, who trapped Burson lbw. He had made 39 in 96 minutes and in a partnership of 73 with Fulton, had carried Canterbury to 106/8.There were then only 46 runs needed for victory and Fulton, who had batted with enormous determination, remained at the crease. But he was unable to forge a partnership of sufficient strength with Canterbury’s last two men in to achieve what would have been a marvelous fightback victory.Stephen Cunis was run out for 0 by a throw from the boundary by James Franklin and Canterbury was 109/9.No 11 Wade Cornelius stayed with Fulton for 24 minutes, scoring no runs but courageously holding up one end, till Penn was finally recalled to the attack to deliver the coup de grace.He did so at 6.05pm at the end of an extraordinary day when he bowled Cornelius and ended the Canterbury run-chase at 120. Fulton was left 46 not out and had been at the crease in a superb fighting innings for exactly three hours.Penn had his eight for 21 and Wellington had its third outright win in successive games. As with all four of its outrights this season, the win was achieved after Wellington had conceded a first innings lead.In this case that lead was only 11 runs but that was still a considerable advantage in a match of such narrow margins. Wellington had been out for 182 in its first innings and Canterbury for 193 in reply.Wellington managed 162 in its second innings after being 98/6 and Canterbury failed on a deteriorating pitch to achieve its victory target. By the third day of this match the pitch had become shifty and treacherous. The ball still seamed, it still turned but the judgement of line and movement, of pace and bounce, was an impossible science.Penn crashed through the Canterbury innings with relentless accuracy and command of movement.He dismissed Robbie Frew for 0 when Canterbury was one and then struck the critical double blow on which Wellington’s victory was largely built. He removed Michael Papps and Gary Stead – the leading scorers in Canterbury’s first innings – with successive deliveries in his 11th over.Papps made 68 in the first innings, Stead 52 and the pair shared a 107-run fourth wicket stand. Their dismissals today for 13 and 0 dealt a staggering blow to Canterbury’s chances.Penn then had Shanan Stewart for 10 when Canterbury was 25 and Gareth Hopkins for 0 when they were 29. He removed Aaron Redmond and Paul Wiseman and Canterbury were 33/7.Redmond’s dismissal was the most remarkable of the day. He was stumped by Glynn Howell from Penn’s bowling, giving him another first – his first dismissal in first-class matches achieved by that method.”What a day, eh?” Penn said.”It’s not often you’re getting rhythm like that. That was the best rhythm I’ve ever had. When you get that you’re so worried you’re going to lose it. It just takes a couple of bad overs and it’s gone.”Penn could not be talked into bowling downwind. It was by bowling into the breeze that he was able to achieve that perfect physical poise.”I was always confident that 152 would be enough,” he said. “I mean that especially with this team, the way we’re play and because of the number of times we’ve come out of tight situations.”The pitch by this third day was desperately hard to bat on. Wellington knew that after their experience earlier in the day and backed themselves to make Canterbury’s life difficult. They did so but there are now real concerns at the nature of the pitches the Basin Reserve is producing.This was the second pitch, after that used for last week’s match against Otago, to play such a large part in determining outcome of the match.Wellington’s next match is also at the Basin, against Northern Districts starting on Monday.

National First League champions Mutare Sports Club and runners-up Old Georgians have made it to the final of the league knockout competition, setting up what promises to be an explosive finish to the 2001/02 club cricket season.Despite missing the services of Alistair Campbell, Guy Whittall and reliable all-rounder Richard Simms on national duty, Mutare didn’t look at all vulnerable as they romped to a comfortable seven-wicket home win over Takashinga. The match was more competitive than the league encounter between the two sides at the same venue on January 26 when Mutare won by nine wickets while chasing a target of less than 100.This time Takashinga made 217 for the loss of eight wickets off their allotted 50 overs with Under-19 batsman Elton Chigumbura the top scorer on 63, while opener Ranga Manyande made 47. Veteran Mark Burmester took four wickets for 36 off his 10 overs. The hosts then reached 218 for three in 42.5 overs.At Old Georgians, the hosts made it three out of three with a comfortable eight-wicket win over Universals. It was the third consecutive meeting between the two teams over the past three weeks. Universals, parading probably their strongest team against OGs this season, batted first and could only make 168 for nine off 50 overs with the best score being 38 from number seven batsman Imran Meman. There were two wickets each for Gus Mackay, Craig Evans and Under-19 bowler Simon Seager.In reply Old Georgians reached 170 for the loss of two wickets in 38.5 overs. Opener Andre Neethling finished unbeaten on 70 together with national Under-16 batsman Duncan Bradshaw who made 33 not out. Opener Lance Malloch-Brown had scored 34 while number three batsman Barney Rogers was out for 19.Now OGs have the chance of atoning for their failure to win the league when they face Mutare in the knockout final at Harare Sports Club on 17 March. A net run rate had to be used to determine the winner of the closely fought National First League championship race and Mutare were the victors, leaving Old Georgians disappointed.

Auckland snatched a thrilling last-over win from Wellington in their State Shield one-day match on a first-rate one-day pitch at North Harbour Stadium today and jumped from fifth to equal first on the Shield table.Aaron Barnes, the all-rounder who did not get a professional contract with Auckland after being granted a benefit season, and who only came into the team as a replacement, was Auckland’s special hero yet again, masterminding the unbeaten 85-run stand which lifted Auckland from 169 for five to the winning total 253 against Wellington’s 252.Auckland could also look with pride at the crash-bang innings of 65 by the opening batsman Llorne Howell which gave Auckland the top-gear start which allowed Auckland to muddle through the middle of the innings and still finish full of fight and success when Barnes and Kyle Mills (32 not out) fashioned their famous winning stand.But when regarded as a guide to how some of the players, and New Zealand as a team, may fare in the World Cup next month the game left several feelings of unease.When the New Zealand side was named the absence of Chris Nevin, the Wellington opening batsman and wicket-keeper was explained away by the need to stiffen the batting, with Mathew Sinclair being fitted into the top order.At the same time Paul Hitchcock, the medium-to-quick bowler and handy batsman was left out, and with the nagging thought that if Chris Harris did not play New Zealand might go into the World Cup with bowlers aiming to take wickets rather than have the balance of one or two medium-pace misers that might be just as vital to the New Zealand attack.Today both Nevin and Hitchcock played with the skill and craft of genuine New Zealand one-day players. Nevin batted close to two and a half hours when starting the Wellington innings with 82. It was a mixture of blazing strokes in his favourite mid-wicket and extra cover areas, and any number of tidy ones and twos which kept the runs flowing in.Compared with some of the opening batting that New Zealand players have offered in recent matches Nevin would win the race by a furlong or two.Hitchcock does not look like a five-star, award-winning player – but then again neither did Gavin Larsen or Harris in recent national sides. Hitchcock simply is a very organised all-round cricketer. On today’s evidence he would fit very neatly into a well-balanced one-day side.In the last quarter of the Wellington innings Hitchcock scored 39 from 35 balls as he and Mayu Pasupati mocked what was supposed to be a menacing “death” bowling attack from Auckland.Hitchcock bowled like a stingy tax-collector in the first two thirds of the Auckland innings and when he came back in a last-gasp four-over burst he flummoxed the Aucklanders by offering only three singles over two vital overs. It was a small masterpiece by a man who obviously knew exactly what he wanted to do with the ball.And it was in direct contrast to the final bowling flings by Andre Adams and Mills, the Aucklanders who are evidently regarded as key men in the World Cup bowling line.In the first half of the match Adams and Mills were workmanlike. In the last few overs, when there was a chance to peg Wellington back to the low 200s (after looking like 300 when Nevin was flourishing), Mills and Adams were awfully inaccurate.In their last five overs, when Hitchcock and Pasupati – not exactly world-class batsmen – were swooping on anything loose, Mills and Adams had the undying ambition that a diet of short-pitched fliers would put these Wellington upstarts in their place – apparently runless as they were busily ducking out of danger.Instead Hitchcock and Pasupati savaged those last five overs. Adams was hit to 11, six and 14, Mills for four and 14 – 49 runs in five overs by a couple of low-order battlers.Denis Aberhart, the national coach, was at the game. The three national selectors Sir Richard Hadlee, Brian McKechnie and Ross Dykes were not noticed among the few hundred spectators. They should have been, for there were some valuable lessons to be learned about some of the national or non-national players.

Pakistan registered its first victory in the World Cup 2003, by crushing Namibia, and finally made their presence felt on the points table. The margin of victory was also quite impressive and that will do the net run rate a great deal of good. Even though the victory may not be regarded as a major accomplishment, since Pakistan was always expected to stroll through the encounter, it was satisfying to see that the team spirit had not been totally damaged by the loss against the Aussies. While the team needs a certain degree of praise for their performance, the true tests for Pakistan lie ahead in the encounters against England and India. Thus, it would be premature to say that Pakistan are right back on track, at this moment.The best thing to come out of this match for the team is that they finally managed to get the team combination right. This set of eleven players should be the side that Pakistan must play in all their main matches, barring any injuries. Even though some may still be concerned that Pakistan are going in with only five regular bowlers, the inclusion of an all-rounder in either Afridi or Azhar Mahmood would upset the team balance. The current team consists of five specialist batsmen and five specialist bowlers, and that seems to be a better bet than going in with bits and pieces who cannot stamp their authority in either department.The first thing to analyse though is the batting performance, which was not quite upto par. The total of 255 was not very impressive considering it was against an exceptionally weak bowling attack. The second major concern was that once again most top order batsmen got starts but failed to convert them into big scores. The batsmen looked tentative, and the knocks lacked fluency. Saleem Elahi scratched is way to an unimpressive 63 while Youhana looked off colour in his innings as well. Saeed Anwar finally got an outing in the international arena, and looked to be in reasonably good touch before playing a characteristically loose shot. Inzamam though continues to remain a worry, and Pakistan desperately needs him to get out of his current slump in form.The batting order though, in my opinion, has not been properly established. Sending Younis Khan in at number three is not the right way to go, in my opinion, as Youhana gets demoted and doesn’t get a chance to play a proper innings. Youhana on current form is the best batsman in the side and deserves to come in at number three, which is unarguably the most crucial position in the batting order.The bowling on the other hand was brilliant. The Namibians were completely overawed by exceptional pace of Shoaib and the guile of the experienced Wasim Akram. The efforts of Akram in the tournament so far deserve special praise. He had single handedly put Pakistan in a winning position against Australia, which was unfortunately not capitalized on, and he showed his class against Namibia as well. His efforts with the bat also clearly indicate that he is desperate to make a mark on the international scene before he retires.However it would be inappropriate to start praising the Pakistan side excessively on the basis of their performance against Namibia, very much the minnows of international cricket. This match was only a workout meant to get back on track for the real challenges ahead.With England having forfeited their match against Zimbabwe, the fight for second and third place after Australia is very much on. Zimbabwe have a realistic hope of making it through to the Super Six, which means that Pakistan might have to win both their encounters against England and India to secure a place in the next round. The team combination is perfect and it is just a question of the players delivering at the right time in the crucial matches. The team spirit looks to be good, a huge relief for the fans after much speculation in the media regarding rifts in the side after their first loss.Ed: If readers wish to correspond with the author, please email Taha Noor

Essex star overseas player Andy Flower has confirmed that he will beavailable to play for the County for all of the 2003 season. The Zimbabweanwicketkeeper batsman will join the Essex team for part of their pre-seasontour to Cape Town, and be available for the opening first class match of theseason against Cambridge University on 12th April.Essex Chief Executive David East commented: