Pakistan’s reserve wicketkeeper, Kamran Akmal, has been forced to delay his arrival in Pakistan ahead of the Test series against Bangladesh, because his boss has locked away his passport.”Kamran will be unable to join the training camp starting later this week,” said a PCB press release, “as his club boss has left for vacation and at the same time has locked Kamran’s passport in his locker.” Kamran, 21, has been playing for the Limavady club in Ireland, and made a record 160 in the final of the North West Cup final last month.In a message to Pakistan’s selectors, Kamran indicated that he would not be able to retrieve his documents until August 16. The first of the three Tests against Bangladesh starts on August 20.

All Today’s Yesterdays – August 18 down the years

August 17 | August 19

2000
An unforgettable victory for England at Headingley, and the first twoday Test in over 50 years. When West Indies began their second inningsmidway through the afternoon session, they were exactly 100 runs behindEngland. After 26.2 overs, they’d been demolished for just 61 – theirsecond double-figure score in three Tests – and England had beaten themby an innings for the first time since 1966. It was unforgettablydelirious stuff. The cherry on the icing came when Andy Caddick tookfour wickets in an over, the last three all castled by swinging yorkers.

1934
The end of one of the monumental partnerships. England needed only adraw at The Oval to retain the Ashes – but big Bill Ponsford made hislast Test a memorable one. His 266 achieved the rare feat of outscoringDon Bradman, who hit a mere 244. Their stand of 451, made in only fivehours, was then the highest for any wicket in Tests and is still in thetop four. England, understandably overwhelmed, lost by a whopping 562runs.

1920
One of the great wicketkeepers and characters was born. Extrovert andgenuinely brilliant standing back or close up, Godfrey Evans played in91 Tests for England, making 219 dismissals, both world records at thetime, and hitting two dashing hundreds. A vivid personality long afterhis retirement, with the most famous mutton-chop whiskers in cricket, hewas the Ladbrokes rep who quoted odds of 500-1 against England winningthe famous Headingley Test of 1981.

1974
Birth of Shiv Chanderpaul. When he made his debut against Englandat Georgetown in 1993-94, he was the first teenager to play in a Testfor West Indies since Elquemedo Willett in 1972-73. Chanderpaul’s slimframe encases the ideal temperament for a Test batsman – and West Indieshave missed it when his frequent injuries have ruled him out. He scoredonly two hundreds in his first 53 Tests, but improved that ratio bynotching three in four matches against India in 2002.

1926
After the humiliations of the early 1920s and the frustrations of thisrain-affected series, England made Percy Chapman captain, recalled the48-year-old Wilfred Rhodes, and regained the Ashes. On this the last dayat The Oval, pace bowlers Maurice Tate and Harold Larwood made the earlyinroads, after which Rhodes’s slow left-arm took 4 for 44. Australiawere dismissed for 125 and lost the series 1-0.

1920
The start of one of the alltime great careers. Wally Hammond made hisfirst-class debut for Gloucestershire against Lancashire at Cheltenham.Ironically, for a batsman of the highest possible class, he made a duckin his first innings. He went on to set any number of world records,among them becoming the first man to score 7000 Test runs and the firstto take 100 Test catches. Three of his big scores are in the Wisden 100:his 336 not out at Auckland in 1932-33, another Test record at the time- and two majestic double-hundreds against Australia. One of theundisputed legends of the game.

1956
Birth of dashing batsman and film star Sandeep Patil, who played in 29Tests for India. His four Test centuries included genuinely brilliantknocks at Adelaide in 1980-81 (174) and Old Trafford in 1982 (129 notout), when he hit six fours in an over from Bob Willis. His important 27in a low-scoring match helped India win the 1983 World Cup final.

1936
On the last day at The Oval, England captain and pace bowler Gubby Allencompleted figures of 7 for 80, the best of his Test career, to helpEngland beat India by nine wickets and take the three-match series 2-0.

Other birthdays
1879 Hugh Bromley-Davenport (England)
1908 Bill Merritt (New Zealand)
1923 Jahangir Khan Irani (India)
1923 Sadu Shinde (India)

Nathan Astle’s strategy to cope with the conditions and the Indianbowlers was masterful. He played mostly on the front foot – 159off the 207 balls he played, showing minimal footwork on 19 ballsand stepping out four times. He played the ball late, allowing itto come to him instead of reaching for it. But when he did rockback, he made it pay; 42 off his 103 runs came off the 25 timeshe went on the back foot. His strike-rate on the back foot was168; the rest of the time, it was 35.

As the above statistic indicates, he played the bowling on itsmerit. Off the 181 occasions that he received a ball on a goodlength or just short of a good length, he made 57 runs. The 13balls that the bowlers dropped short to him went for 34 runs. Hisshot selection was immaculate.

While many of Astle’s singles and twos came via sweeps and dabson the on side, most of his boundaries came from cuts off shortballs on the back foot. In terms of runs, Astle’s wagons wheelappears quite balanced: 56 runs on the off side, and 47 on theoff. But in terms of boundaries, it is decidedly different. Ofhis 14 fours, 12 came on the off side, with 10 of them in the arcbetween extra cover and backward point.

New Zealand are known for planning for their opponents andconditions. Clearly, Astle had done his homework exceedinglywell.Amit Varma is managing editor of Wisden Cricinfo in India.

KwaZulu-Natal defeated high-riding Easterns and consolidated their position at the top of Pool A with a third consecutive victory, putting together a polished team effort to win by an innings and 102 runs. Hundreds from Doug Watson and Dale Benkenstein, along with 98 from Lance Klusener, ensured that Easterns were always on the back foot. A career-best 6 for 43 from the young offspinner Imran Khan, voted Man of the Match, made life even more difficult for the Easterns batsmen, who were bowled out in their follow-on innings shortly before lunch on the final day.In Paarl, Griqualand West made light work of Boland, winning by 100 runs. Benjamin Hector scored a hundred, Wendell Bossenger made 93, and a quick 70 from Shahid Afridi helped Griqualand to 475. Deon Kruis then took 10 for 119, his medium pace proving too good for Boland. Rashaad Magiet (91) and Con de Lange (89) did, however, offer some resistance.Allan Donald showed that he is still a bowler to be respected when he helped Free State to a ten-wicket win against Eastern Province. His 5 for 95 in the first innings was overshadowed by an excellent 145 from Carl Bradfield, the Eastern Province captain. But after a second-innings collapse by Eastern Province, Morne van Wyk (106*) and Jonathan Beukes (88*) knocked off the 198 runs needed for victory.At Newlands Western Province outplayed North West from day one with Neil Johnson and Andrew Puttick both scoring hundreds to guide them to 480 for 5 declared.Meanwhile, Border produced the surprise of the round by defeating Northerns by six wickets. Steven Pope, Border’s hero, scored an unbeaten 146 in their successful run-chase. For Northerns there was a light at the end of the tunnel though, with Alfonso Thomas putting together a good allround performance in scoring a fifty and taking 7 for 63.SuperSport Series Pool AKwaZulu-Natal beat Easterns by an innings and 102 runs. KwaZulu-Natal 495 for 6 dec (Watson 147, Benkenstein 112, Klusener 98, Kent 73); Easterns 215 (Toyana 72, Khan 6-43) and 178 (van den Berg 57, Koenig 53, McLean 4-41).Griqualand West beat Boland by 110 runs. Griqualand West 475 (Hector 114, Bossenger 93*, Shahid Afridi 70, Mashimbyi 61, Smith 50, Groeneveld5-112) and 131 for 5 dec; Boland 205 (Magiet 91, Kruis 5-46) and 291 (de Lange 89, Kruis 5-73).Free State beat Eastern Province by 10 wickets.Eastern Province 331 (Bradfield 145, Donald 5-95) and 103; Free State 237 (Venter 61, Louw 4-45) and 198 for 0 (van Wyk 106*, Beukes 88*).SuperSport Series Pool BWestern Province beat North West by 10 wickets. Western Province 480 for 5 dec (Johnson 135, Puttick 101, Duminy 80*, Bassage 69, Prince 50) and 16 for 0; North West 266 (Bula 60*) and 229 (Bailey 82, Henderson 4-61).Border beat Northerns by 6 wickets. Northerns 197 (van Jaarsveld 63, Henderson 5-73) and 317 (Rudolph 64, Thomas 52); Border 230 (Strydom 53, Thomas 7/63) and 286 for 4 (Pope 146*).Pool A and B Log Tables.

Stephen Coverdale, Northamptonshire’s chief executive, is to resign his position and leave the club before the start of next season.Coverdale has held the post since succeeding Ken Turner in 1985, making him the longest-serving chief executive in England. He will also stand down as a director of the England & Wales Cricket Board, and as a member of the ECB’s management board.”I have reached a stage in my career when, even though I remain as fully committed as ever, I genuinely do need a new challenge,” he said. “Cricket remains my passion but I am considering suitable opportunities both inside and outside the sport.”

The International Cricket Council (ICC) hopes to have a worldwide doping policy in place for next September’s Champion’s Trophy tournament in England. Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, announced that he would be meeting with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) soon to agree a strategy.”We are looking at a generic doping program that will go across the top of cricket,” Speed said. “We are about to have meetings with WADA to look at adopting the WADA program, but there is some opposition within cricket to that.”The subject hit the headlines in February when Shane Warne was banned for one year after failing a drugs test, when a minimum two-year ban was demanded by many anti-drug campaigners. Dick Pound, WADA’s president, condemned Cricket Australia for allowing Warne to train with the Victoria and Australia squads while still banned.Speed said that he would be asking for some leeway in punishing those found guilty. “If there are cheats out there who are using banned substances, yes we want to punish them,” he said. “But if there are issues that fall below that level, we want the discretion to deal with it on a more issue-sensitive basis.”Speed added that cricket had to be seen to be serious about the issue, but admitted that it had a long way to go if it were to tackle to matter properly.

Virender Sehwag will captain the Indians against Australia A in a three-day game beginning in Hobart on December 19.Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly will be rested, while Sadagoppan Ramesh and Murali Kartik are almost certain to play. Kartik was summoned to Australia on the eve of the second Test, but was left out of the side in favour of Anil Kumble, who picked up five wickets in the first innings. This will be Kartik’s first competitive game on the tour.Sachin Tendulkar, with knocks of 0,1, and 37, is likely to use the outing to regain his batting touch.Michael Hussey will lead Australia A, with two express bowlers at the forefront of the bowling attack. Shaun Tait and Paul Rofe have been included in the team, much to their surprise. But the selections were made keeping an eye on the future. Australia’s Test attack has been ageing steadily, and the drought of new quick bowlers has the selectors worried. This was accentuated by India’s domination of the under-strength bowling in Adelaide.Steve Waugh has said of Tait, “He’s probably the quickest, along with Brett Lee.” Tait, a 145kph bowler, has been given full licence to go hard at the Indians. “I think it’s good to have a licence like that, I can concentrate on just bowling fast,” says Tait. “Indians have faced fast bowling before and they can handle it but we’ll have to see how it goes. You never know.”The game will be played on a Bellerive Oval pitch that was found unsafe for play last season, forcing an inter-state match to be called off. The Tasmanian Cricket Association has quashed doubts about the condition of the wicket, saying it is fit for play. “The pitches we’ve had here this year so far have been excellent,” said David Johnstone, their chief executive. “We have no fear of having any problems whatsoever and looking at it the other day, it looked excellent. It’s in good shape.”Weather will play a vital part in the game; there has been a steady drizzle for two days, and the wind is expected to pick up speed tomorrow.Australia A 1 Michael Hussey (capt), 2 Michael Clarke, 3 Chris Rogers, 4 Martin Love, 5 Brad Hodge, 6 Cameron White, 7 Wade Seccombe (wk), 8 Matthew Nicholson, 9 Damien Wright, 10 Paul Rofe, 11 Shaun Tait.Indians (from): Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag (capt), Sadagoppan Ramesh, Sachin Tendulkar, Deep Dasgupta (wk), Anil Kumble, Laxmipathy Balaji, Murali Kartik, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Parthiv Patel (wk).

Matthew Hayden believes his world record score won’t be enough to stop Ricky Ponting winning the Allan Border Medal next week. Hayden, the 2002 winner of Australia’s highest cricketing honour, said, Ponting had done enough in both forms of the game to walk away with the award.”I think Ricky’s the foregone conclusion,” said Hayden, who blasted a world record 380 in the first Test against Zimbabwe last year. “He’s been the standout player through the summer, throughout the winter and throughout the last summer as well – in both forms of the game.”Ponting, who was last year’s Test player of the year, scored 1503 runs at an average of 100.20 in 2003. He also struck three double-centuries to become the first player since Don Bradman to score three double tons in a single year.Ponting was also Australia’s leading run-scorer in one-dayers with 1154 runs including his World Cup-winning innings of 140 not out, making him a strong contender for the one-day player of the year – an award he picked up in 2002.While there are individual awards for the Test and one-day player of the year, the overall award – the Allan Border Medal – is decided by votes earned in both forms of the game. No player has won both the Test and one-day award in the same year.Past winners of the Allan Border Medal have been Glenn McGrath (2000), Steve Waugh (2001), Hayden (2002) and Adam Gilchrist (2003).

Matthew Elliott has been confirmed as one of Glamorgan’s two overseas players for 2004. He had one season with them in 2000 and replaces Queensland captain Jimmy Maher, who is unable to make the start of the season because of personal reasons.Elliott, who has also played for Yorkshire, is expected ahead of Glamorgan’s Championship-opener against Derbyshire in April.”Jimmy Maher was due to return to Glamorgan this summer but he informed us a few weeks ago that he was unlikely to be available for the opening games of the season for personal reasons,” Mike Fatkin, Glamorgan’s chief executive, explained. “We understand his reasons but he in turn appreciates the importance which our captain Robert Croft and John Derrick [the coach] attach to having our overseas players available for the start of the season.”We know Matthew well from his time at Glamorgan in 2000, when he helped the team reach its first major Lord’s final in 23 years.”Elliott has been in good form during the Australian season, scoring more than 1,000 runs for Victoria. In his one season with Glamorgan he also exceeded 1,000 runs, and was named Man of the Match in the C&G Trophy final when he blasted an unbeaten 128 at Lord’s.Elliott, who still harbours ambitions to play for Australia again, played the last of his 20 Tests against the West Indies at Bridgetown in the 1998-99.

Despite the euphoria of that historic victory at Sabina Park, England’s coach, Duncan Fletcher, has urged his players to avoid complacency as they prepare for Friday’s second Test in Trinidad. “It’s very important that we look after our own game and prepare for the next Test,” he stressed. “If we start focussing on other things we’ll probably forget about what we’ve got to do, so we’ll just let that be – it’s out of our hands.”On the face of it, England have established a devastating psychological hold on the series, after bowling West Indies out on the fourth morning in Jamaica for 47 – their lowest-ever total. But recent history in the Caribbean would suggest that no side is more dangerous than West Indies when written off. Five years ago, Brian Lara inspired them to a 2-1 series lead against Australia, after they were bowled out for 51 in the first Test. And five years before that, in 1993-94, England were themselves bowled out for 46 by Curtly Ambrose in Trinidad, only to come storming back the following week, to record the first Test win by a touring side in Barbados for 59 years.”We must have an advantage,” admitted Fletcher, “because confidence levels will be high among the bowlers, while the batters have showed a lot of character. For someone like Mark Butcher, who took a bit of a battering and is pretty bruised, for him to go and win like that is a huge advantage – if we’d lost and he’d taken that battering it would have been pretty hard to come back strongly.”England’s bowling hero on that fourth morning was Steve Harmison, who returned in spades the faith that his coach has invested in him, with second-innings figures of 7 for 12. “We’ve shown a lot of faith in a lot of guys,” said Fletcher, “and Harmison is certainly one of them. It was about three years ago when we realised that this was the guy that England needed and needed badly – most sides need a guy with pace and bounce and he’s got another dimension in that he can also swing the ball.”Troy Cooley, England’s bowling coach, was equally full of praise for Harmison. “He’s got himself organised, his attitude is absolutely right and because of that he’s been able to bowl the way he wants to bowl. This could be the launch-pad to go on to big things.”But if England need any indication of just how dangerous West Indies are likely to be, they might as well ask Graham Thorpe, England’s sole survivor of that 46-all-out debacle in 1993-94. On that occasion, England had believed they were in line for a surprise victory, after taking a healthy first-innings lead at Port-of-Spain. But Ambrose steamed in with an irresistible display, taking 6 for 24 as England folded in 19.1 overs.”They will be hurt because we were hurt,” said Thorpe. “It’s quite humiliating to be bowled our for such a low score, although at least we were away from home when it happened. It was the most humiliated I’ve ever been on a cricket field, but I remember Mike Atherton saying at the time that it was a top spell of bowling, and it was. We knew we were up against a great bowler and we didn’t really have the answers on that day, but it makes you analyse your game that little bit more.”We came back and won in Barbados so we’re well aware that West Indies are not a pushover,” warned Thorpe. “We have to expect them to bounce back. No professional sportsman likes to be beaten in that way and bowled out for that sort of score. They’re a hugely talented side who could come back and win the next game, but it’s for us to analyse our own games and see how we can improve.”Nevertheless, England’s heroics made for a pleasant journey to Port-of-Spain, in stark contrast to the recriminations searing through the West Indian camp. “It’s a huge bonus for us,” admitted Thorpe, “because we expected two really tough days. But we’ve plucked a performance out of the air. It happens every now and then, but it’s got us in the driving seat and that’s a fantastic start for the tour.”