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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.”

India had batsmen in Mohammad Kaif and Rahul Dravid who produced the goods when they mattered, something New Zealand couldn’t generate in their own innings, and they inflicted a seven-wicket loss that should spell the end of New Zealand’s World Cup.The match in Centurion saw another New Zealand top-order batting collapse and the only remaining strand of hope of New Zealand making the semi-finals is for Zimbabwe to beat Sri Lanka tomorrow.But getting into the semi-finals in that fashion would be embarrassing for this New Zealand side who appear in a state of batting shell shock, almost completely out of touch with their regular game.A score of 146 was never going to be enough to trouble the highly-talented Indian batting line-up which is running high on confidence at the moment.Despite the best efforts of Shane Bond to bowl New Zealand back into the game to leave India 21 for three wickets, the shortcomings of the New Zealanders were ruthlessly exposed by India, just as they were by Australia earlier in the week.It is a cruel fact of sport that the catch dropped by wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum, when Dravid was on one, from Bond’s bowling will be remembered by many as the reason for New Zealand’s loss coming as it did when India were 22 for three wickets.That would be unfortunate. New Zealand lost this game, as they lost the earlier match against Australia, because of their lack of batting.McCullum’s was an unfortunate miss but as far as his tournament was concerned it was an aberration. The same could not be said of the batsmen who so often got themselves out in similar manner.New Zealand’s batting problems, the failure of the collective unit to work together, were borne out again in an effort that ranked high on the most abysmal perpetrated by the side.While they were dismissed for less against Australia, they could at least say that was attributable to the pace of Brett Lee.But on this occasion it was Zaheer Khan, a bowler of whom they had seen plenty in New Zealand, and who was bowling in far less amenable conditions, who undid the batsmen from a side supposedly playing for a World Cup semi-final place with his haul of four wickets for 42 runs.The wickets of Craig McMillan, easily caught when turning the second ball of the innings to square leg, and Nathan Astle, pinned plumb leg before wicket off the next ball, were blows that struck at the foundation of the innings.Scott Styris attempted to recover the situation with Stephen Fleming but when the score was 38 he had a ball from Ashish Nehra take the edge and fly to wicket-keeper Dravid to be the third to fall.McCullum was elevated to protect Chris Cairns but the plan failed as he was bowled by Khan, his 100th wicket in One-Day Internationals, for four runs and New Zealand were 47 for four wickets.Indian captain Sourav Ganguly marshalled his bowlers effectively throughout the innings, and everything he tried seemed to work out.Never more so than when he brought back Javagal Srinath for his second spell where he picked up the vital wicket of New Zealand’s in-form batsman, Fleming, for 30 when he attempted a back foot shot only to offer a simple catch to Sachin Tendulkar at mid-off. He took one for 20 off eight overs.The rout was complete when Cairns, having reached 20, attempted a cut shot of sorts to off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. The result of his mis-timed shot was a simple catch to Khan at backward point. New Zealand were 88 for six and the only question seemed to be whether they could avoid lowering their worst score in World Cup games, the 112 against Australia. Harbhajan ended with two for 28 off his 10 overs.The lower-order hung around long enough to keep the score slowly building but the longer they stayed, the more it highlighted the inadequacies of the top order players and their failure to make use of the good conditions.Once India got over the hiccup at the start of their innings with the loss of Virender Sehwag for one, Ganguly for three and Tendulkar for 15, and the opportunities, rather than definite chances, to fieldsmen who would have achieved the miraculous held they held them, Kaif and Dravid batted without great risk and sensibly accumulated their runs while all the time dragging down the New Zealand spirits.They each scored half centuries. Kaif played the more extensive hand, achieving his fourth half-century in ODIs and finishing on 68 not out while Dravid was 53 having scored his 44th half-century.From India’s point of view, Kaif’s finding of form was invaluable as he had been the one batsman in the order without a sizeable score and the New Zealanders will have done he and India a big favour today.Indian captain Ganguly said he was delighted with the bowling and fielding of his side and he knew that even when the side was in trouble they had the players capable of improving the situation.”We have done very well so far but we have still got the most important part to come,” he said.New Zealand captain Fleming said the side was never in the game and had produced a poor performance batting wise.”We needed to be a bit more polished in all areas and on days like this you have to post good scores,” he said.India will play Kenya in their semi-final next week and the prospect must be for Australia and India to play the final next weekend.

Sri Lanka defeated India by six runs in the tension racked PremadasaInternational Stadium tonight in a game that could have swung eitherway and was only settled in the final nerve jangling over of the game.This was one-day cricket at it’s gripping best, with fortunes seesawing throughout the day. In the end, the Sri Lankan spinners heldtheir nerve as the Indian batsmen, needing 222 for victory, stumbledin the last five overs of the game.At the end of the 45th over, bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya, India needed30 runs from 30 balls with four wickets remaining. Rahul Dravid, whofinished unbeaten on 49, was batting with Virender Shewag and the pairlooked to be cruising towards the target, effortlessly working thespinners into the gaps.Kumar Dharmasena, who handsomely repaid the national selectors fortheir faith with an emotionless performance, bowled the 46th andconceded five runs. India though still looked to have the game in thebag. Jayasuriya called his senior players to his side. They discussedtheir options in animated fashion before agreeing that the time hadcome to throw their final match winning card: Muttiah Muralitharan.It was to be his final over and fourth spell of the day and it swungthe initiative back towards the home team. Rahul Dravid hit a singleoff the first delivery and Shewag scrambled two runs with a clump towide long on. Out of the blue, however, Muralitharan conjured up twoconsecutive dot balls. Shewag panicked, went for a boundary, and waswell caught by Suresh Perera at long off.Only three runs were scored off the over and India now needed 22 runsof the final three overs, but Dharmasena conceded just five in the48th over and Jayasuriya likewise in the penultimate, leaving 12 offthe final one bowled by Dharmsena.The off spinner allrounder conceded just five as the India failed tofind the boundary and the terraces erupted with uncontained joy, asthe Sri Lankan players converged in celebration and the Indian batsmenwalked slowly to their dressing room knowing full well that they hadbeen the masters of their own fate.India had started their run chase disastrously, slipping to 30 forthree in the ninth over, thanks to a double strike by Suresh Perera ­Yuvraj Singh caught at square leg and Amay Khurasia trapped lbw ­ andthe soft dismissal of Harbhajan Singh, who had been bravely promotedin the order to make maximum use of the early fielding restrictions.When Laxman was caught behind off Dilhara Fernando India were 71 forfour and Rahul Dravid joined the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly at thewicket. Ganguly had decided to play in the middle order to counteractthe Sri Lankan spinners and the plan looked to be working, asthe duo added 80 runs for the fifth wicket.Russel Arnold broke the partnership when Ganguly top edged a sweep toJayasuriya at short leg. India were 151 for five in the 38th over andSri Lanka were back in the game. Nevertheless, India still looked incontrol until those desperate last overs.Earlier in the game the Sri Lankans had struggled to 221 after winningthe toss. They started well, scoring 48 for the first wicket, beforelosing three wickets for 12 runs. Avishka Gunawardene, dropped twiceduring his 63, then added 73 for the fourth wicket with RomeshKaluwitharana.The second collapse of the innings soon reduced the home side to 155for seven before a 49 run stand between allrounders Kumar Dharmasenaand Suresh Perera rescued the innings and showed clearly the value ofbowlers that can bat.With Muralitharan carving the final ball of the innings over cover forfour Sri Lanka would have been delighted with their final total, butknew that the bowlers had to perform. Thankfully for them the fastbowlers made initial inroads and the spin bowlers held their nerve atthe death. India now play against New Zealand on Thursday and SriLanka take on New Zealand on Wednesday. Both games will be played atPremadasa International Stadium.

Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik has been included as the 16th member of the Test squad for the upcoming series against England in the UAE. Malik, who last played a Test in August 2010, was picked on the request of the team management who were keen to have him in the side based on his current batting form in limited overs and as an extra bowling option.A press release from the Pakistan Cricket Board stated that team manager Intikhab Alam had made the request to chief selector Haroon Rashid, stating that he and head coach Waqar Younis were in favour of Shoaib Malik being retained “given his present form in T20Is and the ODIs”. Rashid’s recommendation was then approved by PCB chairman Shahryar Khan.Malik made a comeback to the international side in the home series against Zimbabwe in May, after a gap of two years, and struck an ODI hundred in Lahore. In 11 ODI innings this year, Malik has scored 500 runs with a century and three fifties at an average of 100, while his run tally in T20 internationals stands at 118 from six matches. Malik’s most recent fifty was an unbeaten knock of 96 in the second ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare, which ended in a five-run defeat for Pakistan due to bad light.”Following Intikhab Alam’s request, I spoke with my fellow selectors and there was unanimity over retaining Malik keeping in mind his current batting form and the off-spin bowling option that could be handy in the all-important forthcoming Test series against England,” said Haroon Rashid.The three-Test series against England kicks off with the first match in Abu Dhabi from October 13. The second and third Tests will be played in Dubai and Sharjah from October 22 and November 1, respectively.

Adam Gilchrist was weary but not exhausted. His baggy green, sweat-lined and with a desperately faded coat of arms, was more ragged than its owner. Relieved and happy that his Test career was over, he had been sad enough at tea that he bawled his eyes out to his team-mates.At the back of the Adelaide Oval’s indoor centre his large family watched him say goodbye. A baby squawked a couple of times and Gilchrist choked up when thanking his wife and children for sticking by him. The extended members of the clan huddled beside the television cameras and were partly responsible for him walking away. Over the past couple of years the new additions made him understand how much his life had moved on.A simple dropped catch of VVS Laxman on the opening day was the sealer. The moment of clarity arrived between the ball hitting his gloves and the ground. He quickly looked up at the replay on the big screen.”It made me realise in the ensuing 10 or 15 minutes that that’s it,” he said. “I’m not moving quite as well as I have, not just on the field but in training and my fitness. I just realised I didn’t have the absolute desperation that you need to continue to maintain your standards.”Gilchrist’s wicketkeeping, which he felt he had to defend throughout his career because of the high-quality work of his predecessors, had slipped over the past month. “I don’t think anyone in this room has missed the fact that I did miss a few chances this series,” he said. “It was bugging me and I couldn’t understand why.”He was enjoying the team, the change in leadership, the new players and was thinking of retiring from one-dayers to extend his Test career. Everything changed with the sound of a ball bouncing out from two gloves. After 96 Tests, a world record 416 dismissals and 5570 runs, he has finished.There were so many groups of people waiting for him throughout the day that he must have felt like a bridegroom. India’s batsmen and Australia’s fielders lined up on the ground in the morning, allowing Gilchrist to run through them, a reception which was repeated for the final session. Two catches were added to his tally and he was ecstatic as his team-mates converged.Stumps were called early and there was no rush to grab a wicket, but there was an urgency to reach Gilchrist. He waved, he hugged and walked off first, his team-mates staying on the field and applauding in a gesture that was symbolic of the months ahead. They will miss him for many reasons.After speaking for 20 minutes about his highs and lows a group of first-aid workers cheered and waited for his autograph. He was looking forward to celebrating with his family, friends and team-mates, and trying to finish the dressing-room speech he had to stop when overwhelmed by emotion.The camaraderie, passion and pride of the side were the things that stood out most during his 12 years in international squads. “The way that legacy is passed on is the most glaring strength in Australian cricket,” he said, “and I’m certain I’m seeing it happen in other countries as well.”In a career of so many individual and collective medals he chose another group moment as his best. Australia hadn’t won in India for 35 years when he was thrust into the captaincy after Ricky Ponting broke his finger during the 2004 Champions Trophy. “From that moment on I started to get nervous and had a few self doubts and considered not taking it on,” he said. “To captain that team for the bulk of the series and be part of the leadership group that constructed that was the highest point and greatest achievement of my career personally.”The magnificent 149 in the 2007 World Cup final sealed a third successive trophy and the drawn-out nature of the tournament weighed heavily on Gilchrist. Five days before he left for the Caribbean his third child was born. As the event wore on he was lonely and a long way from home. “That was one of the most difficult parts of my career, getting through the World Cup,” he said. “To pick myself up [for the final] was very special.”Australian audiences have another six weeks to say their goodbyes as he joins the CB Series circuit. He wants to excite people, but when he sensed the crowd’s demand for something special in his final Test innings he fell to a loose shot on 14. “If I keep thinking I’m going to entertain,” he smiled, “I’ll get knocked over very easily.”Gilchrist’s international career began as a specialist limited-overs player and he was pleased it would wind down in the same format. “I’m thrilled the way it’s gone, that I didn’t pull out of one-day cricket and then extend my Test career,” he said. “One-day cricket gave me a chance to make a statement to the selectors and to the world. That filtered into Tests. To now play the last part of my career in one-day cricket, I am so excited about it.”Having thanked his coaches, a group of close team-mates and those who had supported him since he was child, Gilchrist was almost ready to go to his family. They exited first and he followed slowly, being interrupted at almost every step. In March he will re-join them for good.

Greg Chappell, the former India coach, has said that India needs to plan long-term to progress to the next level. Chappell resigned as coach after India’s first-round elimination from the 2007 World Cup.”The Indians must adopt a 10-year plan, spelling out the aims and objectives and go about attaining those goals in a professional manner,” Chappell told . “Any half measures or cosmetic changes at this stage would be like putting Band-Aid on cancer. If you want to be like Australia, you can’t run your cricket like Zimbabwe.”When asked whether India would have fared better if he had the players of his choice for the World Cup, Chappell said that India should have at least made the semi-finals with the players they took to the Caribbean. “I think we should have done much better in the West Indies with the squad we had. We batted poorly against Bangladesh, but we should have still squeezed out a win. History says India’s record in defending low totals has been quite poor. We could have done with a few young legs, but I believe that we still had the ammunition to at least reach the semis.”Chappell said he had enjoyed coaching India despite a controversial two-year term in which he reportedly annoyed senior players by his insistence on blooding young cricketers.”As a coach, it was easily one of the most challenging assignments one could ever hope to have,” said Chappell. “I have loved every moment of it, planning, strategising, analysing… before every tour or series.”I don’t want to get into [the] senior-junior issue again. Look, as a player, you have to keep challenging yourself. When that stops, it’s time to do a quick reality check and take a few hard decisions. I came here to do a job that I have done to the best of my ability. I do not have any vested interests in Indian cricket. I have briefed the Indian board about the issues facing Indian cricket. One of them is youth development. It’s up to the officials to act in the best interests of the game in the country.”Chappell also praised senior cricketers, including Sourav Ganguly, who was ousted as captain and later dropped after a public spat with Chappell in 2005. Ganguly made a comeback during the Test series in South Africa in December.”He [Ganguly] has practised most of what I had preached during the time he was out of the side. Sourav has shown plenty of determination in winning his place back. I hope he continues to work hard on his fitness and score heavily for the team.”Chappell defended the move to bat Sachin Tendulkar at No. 4 despite most of his one-day success coming while opening the innings. “Opening is an easier option in one-day cricket. I felt that the team would benefit immensely if Sachin came in at number four, for he has the experience, technique and the talent to milk the bowling in the middle overs.”On the whole, in spite of all the controversy, Chappell said that he had no regrets about his term as coach and that he “wouldn’t have missed it for anything”.

On Harmison’s injury
Harmison’s position is that he won’t be playing in the Test match, that’sthe one thing I can let you know. From our point of view, we are going to look at him for a week, we are going to review him after the Test match, see if he can be available for those two one-dayers and then assess whether he goes back, but he definitely won’t be playing in the Test match.On the pitch
Interesting. It is very difficult to say at the moment. You just have to wait and see how it plays once the Test starts. But we have played on it before. The previous wicket did bounce a little bit and hopefully we can get some of that bounce off this wicket in the first couple of days.Losing five players who were key members of the Ashes triumph
We’ve just got to live with it. I don’t know, I wouldn’t like to say it’s a curse. At times these coincidences do happen and we just got to live with it. From our point of view, they are huge losses, such experienced players, but we just have to get on with it. I wouldn’t say it is a curse.Four bowlers or five?
We have definitely got to go in with five bowlers, it has definitely got to be five bowlers because we don’t want Andrew Flintoff to be overworked. He is a major player and if we go in with just four bowlers, it would put enormous pressure on him and we don’t want that.On playing two spinners
We have got to have a look at it, I am not going to rule it out. Just havea look at it and see what our thoughts are tonight. We have sort of madeup our mind where we are going but we want to make sure we don’t missanything out when we have our final discussion tonight.Lack of partnerships in this series
It is an area of concern. But it sometimes happens and it sometimesdoesn’t. They are not machines, they can’t go out there and just keepperforming at the highest level. Sometimes players’ form does dip a bit.From our point of view, it is crucial that some of the experienced playersgo out there and develop partnerships, get big scores. But I am sure theywill rise to the occasion tomorrow.On Monty Panesar
It’s always been a little bit of a problem for us, spinners, because they don’treally play on spinning wickets over there and it has been a concern. Butfrom our point of view, we just hope that Monty develops into a good spinbowler. He still has a long way to go, he is very, very inexperienced. Whoknows how good he will be if he gets that experience.

Scorecard
Sunny Singh completed a fine hundred and put Haryana on the road to the Plate Group final. Sunny’s tenacious 137 and valuable contributions from the lower order took Haryana to a healthy 453 in the semi-final against Jharkhand in Chandigarh. Sachin Rana stroked a plucky 83 and had two good partnerships with Ajay Ratra (40) and Amit Mishra (47). The day got better for Haryana when they snapped up two Jharkhand wickets in the four overs that they got before stumps.
Scorecard
It turned out to be another damp day at Dharamsala with only seven overs of play possible between Himachal Pradesh and Services. Himachal were 9 for no loss when play was called off due to bad light. In case there is no result in the game, the winner will be decided by the toss of a coin.

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.

I left England for Perth on New Year’s Day to join the Neil `Noddy’ Holder Professional Cricketers Training Programme and to play the second half of the season for local Grade I club, Hammersley. Also in attendance is Nicky Peng of Durham and, recently, Pete Trego, ex-Somerset and now with Kent.I have daily, for an hour, one-to-one batting coaching sessions with Noddy Holder, who is the main batting coach for Western Australia and the personal coach of Justin Langer. I have bowling coaching from Matt Nicholson, the Western Australia and ex-Australian Test fast bowler, who is looking into every aspect of my bowling action with a view to helping me to bowl quicker without losing the ability to move the ball. I am also having fielding training with Stewart Kerpennen, who also plays for Western Australia and is the `local Jonty Rhodes’. Therefore, I am working with people who are at the very top of the game.Often, nets start at 7.30 am because, by lunchtime, it is too hot for there to be any meaningful training. Last week, the temperature peaked at 42 degrees, which is ridiculous! I am also doing daily fitness workout with Matt Nicholson, who is a qualified sports trainer with, like myself, a degree in Sports Science. This consists of 3km runs along the beach, sprinting up sand dunes, 2 km swims and gym work. Also, sometimes we go to the local Scarborough Cricket Club where Mat will layout a `circuit’ or to do repetitive 400m runs. One day when he was feeling particularly mean, he took us to a local landmark known as `The Stairs’ which are 120 concrete steps going up a hillside. We had to sprint up the stairs and be timed. Ever since Noddy has had his academy, the record has been 18 seconds and, although it may be hard to believe, I actually returned 17 seconds on my first attempt. With us on that day was an Australian challenged me to a re-run. Again, I clocked 17 seconds while she returned 17.1 seconds and so some of this training must be working!Recently, I also did some schoolboy coaching at a local public school with Messrs Justin Langer, Doug Walters, Barry Richards, Rodney Hogg and Bob Massey! In such company, whoever was in my group drew the short straw! The coaching was over three days and it was a wonderful experience to be with such cricket legends. In fact, I had met Justin Langer about a week earlier at Scarborough Cricket Club when he told me that he was "looking forward" to doing the coaching with me. At the time, he had consumed a couple of beers, been fielding in around 38 degrees and so I had no way of knowing whether or not he was serious.When I first came out here, I had a stiff back courtesy of falling over while on a training run across Painswick Beacon just before departure. This meant that my early bowling was off no more than 10 yards by order. Happily, this has now cleared up and last Saturday I wound it up for the first time, much to the delight of my team-mates as there was a good carry on the pitch and the wicket keeper was taking most of the balls head-high. It now remains to be seen how it goes in the remaining weeks while I am out here.Grade I cricket is a good standard and played in a fiercely competitive way. However, there is no `sledging’ as everyone can play at that standard and so everyone has respect for the ability of the other players. There are a considerable number of `Grades’ to cricket out here so that, more or less, everyone can find a level to play at. This is in marked contrast to most Club cricket in England where virtually every side will contain one or more players who are not at the standard of the rest. The grounds are very large but often used for Aussie Rules in the winter and so the outfields are uneven. Some of the wickets have left a great deal to be desired and so batting has not been easy. The Australians do not complain and they simply get on with it. A sight screen is also a rarity and in our first game, there was no pavilion either! In fact, that game remains in the memory for a number of reasons. First, both sides bring three stumps and a ball. I wish someone had told our skipper, as we turned up with two stumps and no ball!Secondly, because there was no pavilion, we had to change under the trees where I left my kit bag containing the sandwiches I was also asked to bring to contribute towards the tea. At tea time, I discovered that my kit bag was FULL of ants who had invaded all my kit and had my sandwiches away. Thirdly, my first three balls in Australia. The opposition had a well-known local batsman who was already averaging above 60 for the season so far. My first ball hit him full amidships and we all stood around for five minutes while he recovered! My second ball saw him glove it to the keeper, where a large appeal was rejected by the umpire only for the batsman to claim, "Jeez, I gloved that" and he proceeded to walk. I did not know there was such a thing as a walking Australian opener. My third ball saw their next best batsman play all round a straight one and depart lbw. Their two best batsmen were in the pavilion, or at least they would have been had there been one.Unfortunately, my team were bottom of the league on arrival and we have stayed there. A promotion to Grade I from Grade II has coincided with the departure of about half the team and so they are in the process of rebuilding. Have batted in three matches and so far have scored 22, 24 and 10 & 40. The third game was played on a `shocker’ of a pitch that had not been rolled due to mechanical breakdown and the ball was moving everywhere. We scored 80 and 124 and the opposition scored 83 and 126-9. My 40 in the second innings took 3.5 hours and I took 18 overs to get off the mark! Part of my recent batting coaching with Noddy has focussed on concentration at the wicket and selling one’s wickets dearly. I thought I would put the theory to practice and I can assure you that that particular innings bored everybody rigid. However, in the context of the game, it nearly won the match because my team proceeded to drop four catches (two in the last over before the winning run was scored) and so we should have won.The only other thing of note was, the other week, I was asked for $20 on entering my club on the grounds that a 100 Club Draw was no good with 99 balls. I paid the money happily, thinking I was contributing towards Club funds, only to find that my last-minute purchase scooped the top prize of $600. I love taking money from Australians.