Andy Flower became only the second batsman in Test history, after JimmySinclair of South Africa against England in 1898/99, to score more than halfhis team’s entire run aggregate in both innings of a Test match when his side was bowled out twice. However, so little support did he receive from the majority of his team-mates that not even his Herculean efforts could prevent South Africa from gaining a victory over Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club by nine wickets.Zimbabwe began the final day still 10 runs short of forcing South Africa tobat again, and with three wickets in hand, one of which was the pricelesswicket of Flower. It took 25 minutes to wipe out the deficit, whenFlower swept Claude Henderson for the first boundary of the day to take Zimbabweinto credit. A similar stroke later in the over took him past 150. ThenTravis Friend’s gallant vigil came to an end as he played inside a ball fromLance Klusener that didn’t turn, to be bowled for 17; 326 for eight.Flower passed the 156 that he scored in Zimbabwe’s first-ever Test victory,over Pakistan in 1994/95, his previous highest score on this ground, andreached 300 in a Test for the first time. He now became the highest scorerin a Test against South Africa, beating the 299 by Don Bradman in 1931/32.He lost Raymond Price for 4, caught off bat and pad from the slowoff-cutters of Klusener; 344 for nine. Klusener at this stage of the matchwas in fact the only bowler to cause Flower any trouble, beating the batseveral times and forcing him to play with care.Shaun Pollock took the second new ball and immediately Flower opened out,driving the first two balls to the boundary. While Douglas Hondo gallantlyblocked about two balls an over, Flower lashed at anything loose, reaching193 with a six over square leg off Jacques Kallis. On 198 he was forced toplay out a maiden over from Pollock, which included an lbw appeal that hewas perhaps fortunate to survive.With the first ball after lunch, bowled by Andre Nel, Flower was droppedhigh at slip. Later in the over he took a single, only for umpire Tiffin toanswer positively an lbw appeal against Hondo (6), which, if not dubious, wascertainly not straight-forward. Flower thus fell just one run short ofbecoming only the seventh player in Test history to score a single and adouble century in the same match, and the first to be stranded on 199 notout. He batted for a total of 879 minutes in the match.South Africa needed 78 to win, and were immediately rocked by the dismissalto the first ball of the innings by Boeta Dippenaar, trapped lbw by anoff-cutter from Travis Friend. Herschelle Gibbs, suffering from a backspasm, did not field during the morning or open the batting. AlistairCampbell took over the wicket-keeping gloves to rest Flower after hismonumental efforts with the bat.Friend again lacked accuracy, a failing that Kirsten exploited with relishearly on, and then Kallis hit him for four boundaries in a row. Scoring atfive runs an over, South Africa won forty minutes before tea with 33.4 oversin hand. Despite superb batting from Kirsten, Kallis and Gibbs, there couldonly be one choice as Man of the Match, notwithstanding the result.

Sussex CCC are pleased to announce that Murray Goodwin has agreed a newtwo-year contract which will keep him at the Club until the end of the 2003season.This obviously means that Michael Bevan will not be coming back next year and we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all he has done for the Club both on and off the field.

The Soweto Cricket Oval became the focus of international attention on Thursday whenit was turned into dazzling scene of colour and song for the official launchof the eighth ICC Cricket World Cup to be staged in South Africa in Februaryand March of 2003.More than 400 guests – who included South Africa’s Minister of Sport andRecreation Ngconde Balfour and the International Cricket Council’s chiefexecutive officer Malcolm Speed – were treated to a taste of what Africa’sfirst cricket World Cup will be about.In an event televised around the world, Mr Balfour performed the ceremony ofraising the new 2003 World Cup flag for the first time on a day in which theeye-catching official logo and Dazzler, the tournament’s zebra mascot were unveiled.The president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, Adv Percy Sonn,said it was symbolic that the launch function should be staged in Sowetowhere so much of the future of South African cricket lay. It was, he said,demonstrably the greatest cricket function that Soweto had ever hosted.More than 100 Soweto schoolchildren, dressed in bright World Cup regalia,celebrated the event by taking part in a mass cricket clinic.The SA Post Office’s chief executive officer Mr Maanda Manyatshe also usedthe occasion to reveal the first in a series of 13 World Cup postage stampsand hand over commemorative issues.The guests, who included the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, MrRonnie Kasrils, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Aziz Pahad,were reminded of Ali Bacher’s prophetic words, uttered in a speech to theWisden Dinner in London 12 years ago, promising that cricket in South Africawould survive its international isolation and that “out of Africa will comesomething new. It will be dazzling, it will be strong, it will be good.”As the executive director of the 2003 World Cup, Dr Bacher’s use of the word”dazzling” in 1989 now takes on special significance. The collective nounfor zebras is a “dazzle” and the World Cup mascot – a zebra in 12 cricketposes – will be known as Dazzler.Nathan Reddy, of the agency TBWA Gavin Reddy, who designed the logo andmascot, explained that the zebra colours represented the fusion of black andwhite peoples and the cultural diversity of South Africa.Dr Bacher reaffirmed the World Cup’s mission statement that promises toenhance the lives of South Africans in all walks of life through the event.He said the teamwork of the United Cricket Board, the International CricketCouncil and the Global Cricket Corporation, who hold the television andsponsorship rights, would ensure the success of the tournament, as would thestrong partnerships that had already developed with, among others, the SAPost Office, Department of Trade and Industries, Reserve Bank, SA SportsCommission and SA Mint.Mr Speed, who came to Soweto from London especially to attend the launch,emphasized the scope of the event internationally when he announced anexpected television audience of 1 billion people. He said he was confidentthat South Africa would deliver an excellent event.The World Cup’s information website was also launched with a big-screensneak preview. It can be accessed on www.cricketworldcup.com

I have just returned from spending four largely wasted days in Mutare for the match between the Zimbabwe Board XI and Northerns B. Just under a full day’s play was possible, the second day of the three-day match; the other three were completely lost.It was all quite unnecessary, as there was not much rain during the day. Nigel Fleming gives his views on this fiasco in his Manicaland report. The Board XI are determined to win the UCBSA Bowl competition to persuade the apparently most unwilling South African authorities to promote them to the SuperSport Series next season, and they were dealt a savage blow not so much by the weather as by the ground conditions. The ancient covers were about as much use as a popgun in an air raid when the rain fell, mainly during the night. This greatly adds to the pressure on the Board XI in their quest for promotion.It was dry enough during the day for the players to depart for the famous Leopard Rock Hotel to play golf, which meant that they were unavailable for interviews. The only one I was able to conduct was during play on the second day, when the only player available, with the Board XI in the field, was fortunately enough left-arm spinner Ian Engelbrecht, the only one I had not previously interviewed. He proved a very interesting speaker, and his biography is included in this issue. The washout of the one-day game meant that he was robbed of a chance to make his debut for the Board XI.IN BANGLADESHAbroad, Zimbabwe finally managed to win, albeit against Bangladesh, who as I mentioned last week are still grossly underprepared for Test cricket. With no television coverage available, one has to rely on CricInfo reports, which suggest that Zimbabwe played well on a very good batting pitch, although to lose two wickets without a run on the board when chasing 11 to win suggests carelessness.Any win helps, so this will be a boost for the team, and all being well this will be boosted still further in the three-match one-day series about to start. Whatever Zimbabwe’s morale is like, they still believe they can beat Bangladesh, and it will take a major performance by the home side or a very poor one by Zimbabwe if Bangladesh are to win a match. But it will not always be like this, with Bangladesh’s huge resources, and one day soon they will beat us, and quite possibly continue to do so regularly. So we had better make hay while the sun shines! We cannot afford overconfidence.MIKE DENNESS AND THE INDIANSReaders will obviously be aware of the furore in South Africa over match referee Mike Denness’s actions against Sachin Tendulkar for alleged ball-tampering and against several Indian players for excessive appealing, including the suspension of Virender Sehwag for one match. I cannot resist adding my comments.First of all, having watched several times the replay of Tendulkar’s actions with the ball, there is no doubt in my mind that he was simply cleaning the seam, which is legal. I cannot understand how it could be interpreted as interfering with the ball, as interpreted by the rules. As I see it, Tendulkar’s only error was his failure to do so under the supervision of the umpires, as required in the laws.If the match referee did have any doubt, Tendulkar’s past record should have worked in his favour. As far as I am aware, he has never been involved in anything to bring the game into disrepute in any way, unlike a number of other top players I could mention, many of whom have not been punished as he has been. Despite being the idol of many millions, he remains a pleasant, humble man, a sportsman in every sense of the word. He must be deeply hurt by this slur on his reputation. I am sure all that was needed was a gentle reminder from the match referee that he should consult the umpires first next time.Regarding the Indian players and their excessive appealing, I agree with that, except on two counts. Firstly, my feeling is that it was excessive to suspend Sehwag for a Test – and he was not the first player to be banned for a Test match, as the television commentators said more than once. Ridley Jacobs was the first, when he allowed a batsman to be given out stumped when the ball was in his wrong glove when West Indies toured Zimbabwe recently.I am in favour of a more hands-on approach by match referees. With a young player like Sehwag, who has no history of misbehaviour behind him, would it not have been sufficient for the match referee to call him at the next interval to tell him in effect, "Your behaviour was unacceptable; you had better keep your nose clean for the rest of the series, because if there is one sniff of a recurrence I will suspend you"? In most cases, that should do the trick. A quiet word of warning with certain players at the next interval when necessary might do wonders and forestall resentment.My other reservation is that, although I feel glad that positive action was taken against excessive appealing, another aspect of misbehaviour was apparently ignored. Jacques Kallis, for example, was apparently allowed to spit abuse at an Indian batsman after he evaded a bouncer without any action being taken at all.Obviously every now and then players will let slip a few words through frustration, but when it becomes personal and insulting it is unacceptable. Yet Mike Denness appeared prepared to overlook it. The preamble to the laws of cricket states that the spirit of the game involves respect for your opponents, and that it is against the spirit of the game to direct abusive language towards an opponent. – in exactly the same section where it says it is against the spirit of the game to advance towards an umpire in an aggressive manner when appealing.No wonder the Indians feel they are discriminated against by match referees. Their players, or some of them – I cannot remember seeing the great Sachin do so – are rightly penalized when they go over the top in their appealing. Yet the opposition are allowed to get away with sledging, and too often commentators support them with comments such as, "It’s good to see a bit of needle out in the middle," and so on.Cricket is traditionally a gentleman’s game. Obviously that is no longer the case in practice, but is it still even an ideal? Is it gentlemanly behaviour to abuse an opponent, even when frustrated? Match referees need to start demanding more self-control from the players. It is a rare virtue these days.Zimbabwe are one of the better international teams when it comes to on-field behaviour, but in domestic cricket the situation is not the same. It has come into Logan Cup cricket, with the Mashonaland side, disliked throughout the rest of the country for their attitude, leading the way. Others have followed. Certain clubs have earned notoriety for their verbals on the field, and it has apparently come into schools cricket as well.Umpires, managers and captains at all levels need to be made aware of their responsibilities. Umpires need to be urged to take a stand against any verbal abuse that goes beyond the occasional frustrated comment; they need to be supported and to know that they are supported. The authorities, I feel, should adopt a `name them and shame them’ policy of disciplining the culprits and publicizing the fact that they have done so.Many umpires at club and provincial level, I am told, tend to ignore sledging because they don’t feel they get support from the authorities. In fact, the authorities do deal with their reports and follow them up, but it is done so privately that the umpires concerned do not even get to know about it, and so feel they are ignored. Let’s get Zimbabwe cricket clean and keep it clean. It would help if the rest of the world took a stand against bad on-field behaviour as well.By the way, it was good to see Zimbabwean umpire Russell Tiffin have such a good game in the Port Elizabeth Test match. He had some very tricky decisions to make and, according to the television camera, they were mostly, if not all, correct.

The National Under-19 Championship Series Final is evenly balanced with just two sessions remaining in an engrossing match between New South Wales and Queensland at Newcastle. At lunch on the final day of the tournament, the Queenslanders are at 2/43 as they pursue New South Wales’ total of 242.The Blues’ lower order resumed at 8/210 at the Number 1 Sportsground this morning, and again provoked frustration for their opposing bowlers by eating up more than an hour of play before surrendering a wicket. As it happened, another then fell just two deliveries later to finally put a seal on the innings.But, by then, Daniel Christian (68) and James Allsopp (28) had heroically lifted the home team to a position which was strong enough to ensure that Queensland’s quest to snare a third consecutive national title would be a difficult one through the afternoon.Left arm paceman Chris Summers (2/9) was the successful bowler, trapping the plucky Christian in front of his stumps and then finding the outside edge of Allsopp’s bat with only one further run added to the total. But the wickets came after around 70 minutes of play today, minimising the time available to the visitors to chase down the runs.New South Wales, for its part, simply needs to draw this match to clinch the title for the first time since 1998-99.Queensland’s cause wasn’t improved when opener Nathan Kruger (9) lost his wicket early in the reply to fast bowler Aaron Bird.And another major setback arrived ten minutes before lunch when captain Craig Philipson (8) chased an outswinger from Adam Fleming to edge a catch to wicketkeeper Allsopp.Aaron Maynard (18*) and Greg Moller (7*) adopted an attacking approach in the shadows of the break to add an unbroken 14 runs in better than even time for the third wicket. Critically, Moller was dropped by Brett Eriksson high to his right at slip off Fleming’s bowling in the final over before the break. And how severely the New South Welshmen are made to pay for that miss might well go a long way to settling the outcome of the contest.The day had dawned a touch overcast in Newcastle but fine and sunny conditions have slowly taken over. It means that the Queenslanders should have available to them a full four hours to score the extra 200 runs they need to whisk away the title yet again.

Michael Bevan should eclipse another one-day milestone tomorrow when his New South Wales Blues take a winning Gabba record into the ING Cup clash with Queensland.Bevan needs just seven runs to reach the 2000-run mark in domestic one-day matches, enhancing his reputation as one of the most effective batsmen in theshortened form of the game.Five batsmen have already passed 2000 runs, but none has matched Bevan’s performances in the international arena.The left-hander averages 57.28 in his 164 matches for Australia – the best mark of any international batsman to have played more than five matches – and he willprove a genuine test for Queensland’s bowlers tomorrow.The Bulls tamed Bevan during their comfortable win in the four-day Pura Cup match earlier this week in a rare double failure for the 31-year-old.”You can’t score runs every game but we rely pretty heavily on Bevo and he’s been the man for us in a lot of situations,” Blues captain Shane Lee said.”That’s the way it is but our one-day form has been very good and I can’t remember the last game we lost here.”The Blues haven’t lost at the Gabba since October 1996, bucking the trend at a ground which has become a killing field for Queensland.Lee kept the winning run intact two years ago when he smashed an excellent century to beat a Queensland team which had been cruising at 0-189.Sports bookmakers expect tomorrow’s match to be a preview of February’s final, particularly after the Bulls almost rolled a full-strength NSW in Sydney two weeks ago.”We probably should have won it – we lost it rather than they won it – so it should be a good one-day contest,” Bulls captain Stuart Law said.The Blues sit atop the table on 13 points, four ahead of Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.Tomorrow’s clash coincides with the beginning of the third Test between Australia and New Zealand in Perth but eight of the ACB’s 25 contracted players will be at the Gabba.Discarded Test opener Michael Slater will also shoulder some hopes for the Blues along with explosive batsmen Brad Haddin and Mark Higgs.The Bulls are expected to bracket Martin Love with Jimmy Maher at the top of the batting order in the absence of Test opener Matthew Hayden.Maher is also nearing a milestone, needing 21 runs to overtake Hayden as Queensland’s most profilic one-day runscorer.That would push Maher into second place on the Australian all-time list behind Darren Lehmann.QUEENSLAND: Stuart Law (capt), Jimmy Maher, Martin Love, Clinton Perren, Andrew Symonds, Brendan Nash, James Hopes, Wade Seccombe, Ashley Noffke, Nathan Hauritz, Michael Kasprowicz, Joe Dawes.NEW SOUTH WALES: Shane Lee (capt), Brad Haddin, Michael Slater, Michael Bevan, Michael Clarke, Mark Higgs, Graeme Rummans, Shawn Bradstreet,Stuart MacGill, Don Nash, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark.

As a full moon holiday in Colombo brought the first Test to a temporary halt on Sunday, Zimbabwean captain Stuart Carlisle was left ruing a string of poor umpiring decisions on the first three days that leaves his side facing a massive innings defeat.Zimbabwe were forced to follow on 402 runs in arrears after being bowled out for 184. They then lost both openers, Hamilton Maskadza and Trevor Gripper, before the close of day three.Carlisle admitted that his side had bowled poorly on the first two days and some batsmen had been guilty of throwing away their wickets in the first innings, but he also believed his side to have been extremely unlucky.Zimbabwe were the victims of seven dubious decisions, starting with early let-offs for Marvan Atapattu (caught short leg) and Sanath Jayasuriya (caught behind). Russel Arnold was then reprieved on the first evening because of poor quality television replays.In their first innings, Muttiah Muralitharan won two doubtful decisions – Gavin Rennie (lbw) and Grant Flower (caught bat-pad) – before Pakistani umpire Riazruddin gave Travis Friend a palpable wrong decision. Then, to stir up Zimbabwe’s frustration even more, Trevor looked unlucky to have been given out caught behind in the second innings just before the close.Sri Lanka, too, suffered, with Andy Flower getting two lives and Kumar Sangakkara unlucky to be given out caught at slip by the third umpire after inconclusive replays, but Zimbabwe bore the brunt of the bad decision-making.Carlisle said: "We took a gamble with the toss and we were very unfortunate. We had certain opportunities and it could have been a completely different story. We could have had two wickets down relatively early and that would have changed the match a bit."As a fielding and batting side we have been very unlucky on certain things and it really hasn’t gone our way. Something needs to be done and I am sure that it will be eventually, but these important factors change games."He tried his best to be phlegmatic: "You just have to say its one of those things in cricket. Individuals make mistakes – although when they are made it can be very hard to lift the guys."But also acknowledged that his side had been outplayed: "We are lacking a spinner and we backed our seamers but the Sri Lankan batsmen made full use of a good batting pitch. Then there were some pretty ordinary shots from out batters and once again a couple of 30s and 40s that needed to be turned into big scores."We are now at the back end of it, but we sure are going to try our hardest to save this game. It is a pretty good batting pitch, but 30s and 40s are not going to do it. It’s up to the eight batters left to get really stuck in and put together some big partnerships."On a slow, low wicket offering little assistance to the faster bowlers, Zimbabwe’s faint hopes securing a draw, hang on how they counter the wiles of Muralitharan. Carlisle was not displeased with their efforts against him thus far, even though he has already taken six wickets."Murali is clearly a word class bowler and he is always going to be hard in Sri Lanka. We had a game plan – although it’s up to individual batsmen to say, "This is what I am going to do," and stick to it – and, on the whole, I was happy with how the guys played Murali. He got four wickets in the first innings and too of those were fortunate."

The West Indies achieved a crushing 301-run win over Scotland in their group match in the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Dunedin today.The West Indians batted first and amassed 402/3. Donovan Pagon scored 176 off only 129 balls in an innings that included 21 fours and five sixes while Lendl Simmons was 121 not out off 120 balls and Alcindo Holder hit 56 not out off only 22 balls, including three fours and five sixes.Scotland had no response at all and were dismissed for 101 in 38.3 overs. Qasim Sheikh hit 37 off 77 balls for his side but that was the sum response among the Scots. Ryan Nurse took three wickets for 18 runs, Narsingh Deonarine took two for 12 and Ravindranath Rampaul took 2/28.Scotland should find more comfort in its match tomorrow against Kenya while the big match of the round is shaping on Wednesday between the Australians and the West Indies.

Ben Brocklehurst, who captained Somerset in 1953 and 1954, has just celebrated his eightieth birthday.Born in Norfolk, Ben Brocklehurst was an elegant right-handed batsman who first appeared for Somerset in 1952 at the age of 30.His first appearence was against Yorkshire at Taunton in the opening match of the season when he was unfortunate enough to be dismissed without scoring. The bowler on that occasion was a youthful Brian Close who himself was to become another of the county’s captains twenty years later.In his first season with the club, Ben Brocklehurst appeared in just six matches, and scored 160 runs at an average of 16.00, with a highest score of 40.Ben Brocklehurst was appointed captain of the team for the following season, and played in all but one of the championship matches. In his 27 matches he scored 650 runs at an average of 14.44, with a highest score of 62.In 1954 he played in all 28 championship matches and enjoyed his best season with the club. In all matches he scored over 800 runs at an average of over 16 which included his career-best innings of 89 against Pakistan at Taunton, when he opened the innings with Les Angell.At the end of the 1954 Ben Brocklehurst left the county and later became managing director and proprietor of The Cricketer Magazine.Several years after he left Somerset, Ben Brocklehurst regularly played village cricket for his nearby village of Ashurst which is situated between Tunbridge Wells and East Grinstead on the Kent and Sussex borders.In one early season, hotly contested local derby encounter with Fordcombe in the early 1960s, the writer of this article bowled Ben Brocklehurst cheaply without knowing that he had once been the captain of Somerset.If you are reading this Ben, everyone at the club sends their best wishes and hope that you had a good day.I’m sure you have many happy memories of those long-ago days at the County Ground with the Cidermen.

England seem certain to face a much tougher match than that provided by Otago when they meet Canterbury in the last warm-up match before the first Test starting next week in Christchurch.In a departure from the norm, the result of rugby gaining precedence for use of Jade Stadium at the weekend, the England-Canterbury match will be played on Hagley Oval.The inner city ground is the home ground for several Christchurch senior club sides and while Hagley Oval is one of the oldest first-class grounds in the country it has not been used regularly for first-class play for many years.This match also celebrates 125 years of the Canterbury Cricket Association, just as the Otago match celebrated 125 years of Otago Cricket.Eight players with international experience have been included in the Canterbury side, including the match-winner from the last of the One-Day Internationals, Nathan Astle, world-ranked all-rounder Chris Cairns, Craig McMillan and Chris Harris.Fast-medium bowler Chris Martin could also play although he has to prove his fitness after a recent injury.Captain Gary Stead is a former international as is off-spinner Paul Wiseman. Warren Wisneski has played ODIs for New Zealand while Shanan Stewart and Wade Cornelius are graduates of last year’s New Zealand Cricket Academy intake.Both have made their mark in first-class play this summer while opener Robbie Frew has been in good touch this summer.Canterbury has disappointed in the State Championship this year but has had to play without its international players for much of the time.They will greatly strengthen the Canterbury side.England has had some good news however, Michael Vaughan is likely to play in the game. Vaughan suffered a shoulder dislocation while fielding in the fourth ODI in the recent series after playing one of the better innings of the series for the tourists.The injury has not completely recovered but by the time the match starts Vaughan is certain he will be ready and is keen to stamp his claim on a place in the Test side.Certainly after the batting embarrassments at Otago’s hands, an in form Vaughan would be greatly appreciated by England.The Canterbury team is: Gary Stead (captain), Robbie Frew, Michael Papps, Shanan Stewart, Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Gareth Hopkins, Paul Wiseman, Warren Wisneski, Wade Cornelius, Chris Martin.The match will start at 12 noon each day.