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Shahid Afridi has said that he harbours ambitions of making a century while batting in the lower order and has cited Adam Gilchrist’s fantastic 113 at Sydney recently, against Pakistan, as a knock that inspired him. He added that he was not planning to change his dare-devil approach to batting, which brought him success on the tour, and hoped that he could boost Pakistan’s chances of upstaging India in the much-anticipated forthcoming rubber.”I think I’ve been selected for this tour as a bowler who can bat instead of 1999 when I was picked as a batsman who could bowl,” Afridi told the Press Trust of India. “Which means batting down the order and bowling more than before.”Afridi had a scorching run in the VB Series, where Pakistan lost in the final, with 231 runs at a stunning strike-rate of 167.39. His power-hitting proved crucial in a number of games, he even notched up the record for the most sixes in ODIs, as fielders were reduced to spectators in the big Australian grounds. “I want to continue with my style of batting which is extremely simple: hit the ball back with same force,” he added. “I like hitting the ball into stands and want to hear the cracking sound that comes out of my bat. I don’t know why but that sound [of wood] and sight of seeing the ball land in enclosures gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction.”Afridi has had success in India earlier: he scored a matchwinning 141 in the Chennai Test in 1999 and helped Pakistan clinch an epic encounter. He has tormented India regularly and has one century and four fifties against them. The last tour of India saw Afridi the opener display his destructive ability. This series, though, may see Afridi the legspinner and lower-order dynamite prove a point or two.

West Indies have suffered a blow ahead of next week’s first Test with the injury-enforced withdrawal of the batsman Wavell Hinds. Hinds broke the little finger on his left hand while fielding in the tourists’ opening tour match against Queensland on Thursday.A team spokesman said Hinds, the left-handed batsman with 44 Test appearances, had to keep the finger immobilised for ten days, which would also force him out of the three-day match against Victoria in Melbourne, starting on November 11. Hinds is not expected to be fit until the second Test in Hobart, beginning on November 17.The unavailability of Hinds, who averages 33.54 in Tests with five hundreds, will solve a selection riddle for West Indies over who will open the innings with the World XI one-day representative Chris Gayle. Devon Smith is now expected to partner Gayle for the first Test starting next Thursday.

Scorecard

An outstanding 278-run stand between Michael Bevan and Daniel Marsh helped Tasmania recover from early setbacks and finish the first day of their Pura Cup match against Western Australia well in command. After being put in to bat at Hobart, Tasmania slumped to 3 for 23 before Bevan and Marsh came together. When rain caused play to be curtailed 18 overs early, they were still undefeated, with Bevan on 161 and Marsh on 113.Their partnership was a new fourth-wicket record for Tasmania, obliterating the 258 of Danny Buckingham and Michael Taylor in 1987-88. Marsh’s century, which came off 147 balls and included 17 fours, was his first since December 2003, and finally ended a poor run with the bat this season.”I’ve been pretty disappointed that I haven’t been able to help the team out and get some runs,” Marsh said afterwards. “I’ve been working really hard in the nets and I think mentally the hard work’s going to pay off. I probably just made some better decisions and had a bit of luck today.”Western Australia are currently third in the Pura Cup table, and their excellent start would have given them hope of sneaking a place in the final – but Bevan and Marsh ensured that, by the end of the day, the Warriors were staring at a huge first-innings total. “There was some brilliant batting in the end, but we allowed them to get into form,” said Wayne Clark, the coach. “We bowled Dan Marsh into form early, and from then on he batted as dangerously as we know he can, and unfortunately we’re the ones he’s taken it out on.”

The majority of county chiefs are in favour of making changes to the current promotion and relegation system, according to a poll in the latest edition of magazine. The survey confirmed that 13 of the 18 counties wanted to see two teams go up and down from each season rather than three.A change to this structure is expected to form part of the recommendations of the ECB’s Domestic Structure Review Group (DSRG), which is due to publish a report this July. However, any changes would be unlikely to come into effect until 2006.”Three sides going down is the equivalent of seven teams in football’s Premiership and that’s too many,” Jim Cumbes, Lancashire’s chief executive told the magazine. John Scopes, Northamptonshire’s chairman, agreed, saying, “It’s a bit of a lottery. It only takes a couple of injuries and a bit of bad luck with the weather to finish seventh.” Paul Sheldon at Surrey added: “Three-up, three-down is too many. More important is that we listen to current players rather than former players about playing too much – and a unified voice says we do.”Another who had his say was Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire’s chief executive, who said the two-up, two-down was the way ahead: “I don’t think we should be cautious about change, but we need to look at it in the round. Two divisions works. It adds to the focus, the competitive nature.” Gloucestershire were one of the three teams to have been promoted to Division One last season, meaning that every county has been in the top division at some stage.Restructuring the system has been high on English cricket’s agenda since the end of last season with numerous plans being put forward. The Cricket Reformation Group, headed by Bob Willis, a former England captain, believes 12 of the 18 counties should go part-time, with the national side being drawn from 120 professionals divided up between the six full-time clubs. While Matthew Engel, editor of the Wisden Cricketers’ Alamanack, proposed a merger of the Championship and the National League into a single competition.

Ata-ur-Rehman, the banned Pakistan fast bowler, has been reinstated on the official players’ list and can play from May 2007. Rehman, 30, was one of those implicated in Pakistan’s controversial match-fixing inquiry five years ago – he admitted to lying under oath after initial statements – and was serving a life ban from the game handed him by the ICC in 2000.”From May 2007, Ata will be free to play cricket as he wishes,” Malcolm Speed, the Chief Executive Officer of the ICC, clarified, “in England – league cricket, county cricket – or wherever he may be selected.”We’ve received no further application from any other player,” he said when asked about Mohammad Azharuddin. “the provision is been in place since 2003 to enable an application to be placed. If and when an application is made from any other player, we will deal with it in the same way.”

Queensland 6 for 282 (Simpson 71, Love 52, Nye 59*, Bracken 3-42) v New South Wales
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Australia’s loss has been New South Wales’s gain. Nathan Bracken, not wanted by the Test selectors for the tour of Sri Lanka, ripped through Queensland’s middle order on the first day of the Pura Cup match at the SCG, taking 3 for 1 in 24 balls, including the prized scalp of Martin Love, to keep New South Wales’s title defence alive.But the patched-up Queensland team, forced to rush Damien McKenzie onto a flight from Brisbane to Sydney when Ashley Noffke was a late withdrawal with an ankle injury, refused to surrender, reaching 6 for 282 at stumps as Aaron Nye made an unbeaten 59 on debut.”It’s interesting at the moment, pretty evenly poised,” said Bracken. “We’ve just got to get out there tomorrow and if we bowl well for an hour, we can do some serious damage and hopefully finish them off quickly.”Bracken was untouchable after tea. It must have been something he ate. Starting the final session wicketless with Queensland travelling relatively comfortably at 3 for 181, Bracken claimed the vital wicket of Love for 52, trapped James Hopes lbw for 8, and had Chris Hartley caught by Michael Clarke at third slip for a duck as the Bulls staggered to 6 for 202.Hundreds of schoolchildren, on hand to watch Steve and Mark Waugh’s last game at the SCG, had just gone home. They contributed to a crowd of 2409 – about 2000 more than normal for a day at the Pura Cup. Steve Waugh – who would have expected to roll Queensland over before stumps after sending them in – bowled the last over as the crowd in the Noble Stand sang “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”.Bracken’s burst, combined with Matthew Nicholson (2 for 68) getting rid of the prolific Stuart Law for just 10 and Glenn McGrath’s miserly effort of 0 for 26 from 17 overs, gave NSW every chance to pull off the outright win both sides require to sneak into the Pura Cup final. To get there, NSW or Queensland also need Tasmania to go pointless against Victoria at Hobart.New South Wales could have done without a late 80-run partnership between Nye and Andy Bichel (46*). “We were in a position where we had the opportunity to go through them but they dug their heels in,” said Bracken, who finished with 3 for 42 from 17 overs. “We were looking at 350 as being the par score for the day, so we’re happy.”Dominic Thornely took 12th-man duties to new heights. Squeezed out of the starting XI, he grabbed two vital catches – one of them a blinder, the other just plain difficult – to send Love and Law back to the pavilion. Having only taken the field because Adrian Tucker needed treatment for a finger injury, Thornely dived full-length to his left at square leg to catch Law, before accepting a lofted pull-shot from Love as he ran in the opposite direction to the pitch at midwicket. They were big breakthroughs – Law is Queensland’s highest alltime runscorer, and Love is sixth on the list.The New South Wales camp denied they were keeping close tabs on Tasmania’s progress against the Vics. “We’re 100% on this one here,” said Bracken. “If we don’t get six points [by winning outright], there’s no point even worrying about that game.”

In a departure from his earlier stand, VVS Laxman has indicated that he is willing to bat at the top of the order. According to a report by the Press Trust of India, Laxman said: “I would not mind opening the innings.”Talking about his performances as an opener, Laxman expressed his disappointment with his record as a Test opener: 658 runs at 28.60. "I tried my best as an opening bat, but I think I did not live upto my own expectations. Also, the moment I failed one or two times they branded me a non-regular opener. I thought I could do better as a middle-order batsman because that’s the position I have batted throughout my career."Looking back at his omission from the World Cup squad, Laxman said that it was a "huge shock". "It was the most depressing moment in my cricketing career. For the past one year prior to the event, I was preparing really hard to contribute."Shrugging off that disappointment, Laxman said that he was back in top shape after having recovered from his side strain. "I had sustained a side strain on the West Indies tour [with the India A team] and had to take a month’s rest. Since then I have been doing exercises to strengthen my back."Laxman was also full of praise for the idea of holding a preparatory camp at the start of the season. "It is a really good idea to have this camp and it is good that they are emphasising a lot on fitness. Already, this camp has helped me recuperate and make the back really strong."India play a two-Test series against New Zealand next month, and Laxman was keen to make up for his failures on India’s tour to New Zealand. “We had a bad away series in New Zealand and the entire team is looking forward to this one. It is important that before we go to Australia our confidence level should be really high, so this series is important.”

All Today’s Yesterdays – August 21 down the years

August 20 | August 22

1986
Nobody had a greater sense of theatre than Ian Botham. Restored to the England side after a ban for admitting to the use of marijuana, he took a wicket with his first ball against New Zealand at The Oval, having Bruce Edgar caught by Graham Gooch, whose remark said it all: “Who writes your scripts?” Botham had just taken his 355th Test wicket, equalling the world record. Naturally he soon got the 356th, Jeff Crowe lbw – and followed it up with a rapid fifty. Beefy was well and truly back.1914
One of England’s most prominent and controversial legspinners was born. Doug Wright was prominent because he took seven hat-tricks, still a record in first-class cricket – and had his moments in the Test team too, including 7 for 105 at Sydney in 1946-47. But controversial because his 108 Test wickets cost 39.11 each: he simply bowled too many bad balls. Against the strong Australian teams he faced, this was asking for trouble. He was on the winning side only once in 14 Ashes Tests.1988
Yorkshire beat Surrey by three wickets at Chingford to win the inaugural women’s County Championship.1907
Birth of the first woman to captain England in a Test. In the inaugural match, at Brisbane in 1934-35, Betty Archdale hit an unbeaten 32, her highest Test score, out of an unexceptional total of 154 – which was enough to win the match by nine wickets. Australia made only 138 and lost the three-match series 2-0. Archdale went to live in Australia, where she died in January 2000 aged 92.1878
Against Kent at The Oval, Surrey wicketkeeper Ted Pooley made his eighth stumping of the match, then a record in first-class cricket. Against Sussex on the same ground in 1868, he made 12 dismissals, another world record at the time and still the record for a first-class match in England. One of the best keepers of his day, he never won an England cap – although he would have played in the inaugural Test, at Melbourne in 1876-77, if he hadn’t been in jail. He was arrested following a betting scam in New Zealand.Other birthdays
1905 Stan Worthington (England)
1905 Errol Holmes(England)
1935 Ken Taylor (England)
1961 V.B.Chandrasekhar (India)
1970 Keith Semple (West Indies)
1975 Simon Katich (Australia)

Khalid Latif, the opening batsman, has been named as Pakistan’s captain for next month’s Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.Khalid has played 10 first-class matches, as well as two U-19 `Tests’ against Sri Lanka in August last year. In junior one-day cricket, he has played eight matches, and he scored 98 in his first appearance for Allied Bank in this season’s inter-departmental qualifying round.He has some captaincy experience as well. He led Pakistan on three occasions – against Malaysia U-17 in 2000, Sri Lanka in August 2003, and in the Asian U-19 tournament at Lahore and Karachi.Squad Khalid Latif (capt), Adnan Zaheer, Abid Ali, Jahangir Mirza, Mohammad Asif Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Zulqarnain Haider (wk), Tariq Mahmood, Mansoor Amjad, Usman Saeed, Salman Qadir, Wahad Riaz, Mohammad Riaz Afridi, Ali Imran Pasha.

Zimbabwe has confirmed its team for the first npower Test match versus England at Lord’s, beginning on Thursday 22 May. The 11 players selected are:Heath Streak, captain
Tatenda Taibu, vice captain and wicketkeeper
Dion Ebrahim
Mark Vermeulen
Stuart Carlisle
Grant Flower
Andy Blignaut
Travis Friend
Sean Ervine
Douglas Hondo
Ray Price
There are two changes from the team that drew with Sussex in the last lead up game at Hove. Seam bowling all rounder Travis Friend replaces Douglas Marillier, while pace bowler Douglas Hondo replaces Mluleki Nkala.Zimbabwe coach Geoff Marsh commented: “All 15 players were fit and available for selection. The final eleven gives us depth and variety in bowling, while the top order batting is supported by a number of genuine all round performers.”Despite losing a lot of play against Sussex our build up to the Test has gone well, with a win, a tie and a draw. Most of the batsmen have spent time in the middle and three have already produced big hundreds”.Captain Heath Streak added:”Our bowlers have all acclimatised pretty well to early-season English conditions and have delivered good spells in all three of the tour games. With unsettled weather forecast for Lord’s and a pitch that might favour the faster bowlers, the luxury of being able to call on five seam bowlers gives us plenty of options.”Streak will lead a five-pronged pace attack on a ground where he returned his best Test figures of 6-87, against England in 2000. Andy Blignaut, Douglas Hondo (12 wickets in two tour games to date), Sean Ervine and Travis Friend complete the seam attack. Ray Price provides contrast with left arm spin and will be backed up by fellow left armer Grant Flower.Three of the top order batsmen go into the Test with substantial centuries to their credit on tour: Grant Flower:130 v British Universities, Stuart Carlisle: 159 v Worcestershire and Mark Vermuelen:198 v Sussex.Nine of the starting line up are first class centurions (Hondo and Price being the exceptions).ZCU Media Contacts: Lovemore Banda, ZCU Communications Manager
Cell: + 44 (0)7818 881443
or
Mark Harrison, Media Consultant
Mobile: + 44 (0) 7776 182506