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Adrian Le Roux, the physical trainer of the Indian team for the last year, has decided to quit the post and join the South African team as their trainer. Le Roux, whose contract with South Africa extends till 2005, will join the squad later this week.The Indian board (BCCI) was initially caught unawares by this development, but later issued a statement saying that it respected Le Roux’s decision, and would start searching for a replacement.Speaking to the Times of India, John Wright, the India coach, said, “it has come as a surprise. However, he has made a decision as a professional and we can only respect his judgement.” He added: “But he has left a schedule to follow for Indian players and I am sure everyone will try to live up to it.”Le Roux had joined the Indian team early last year, and had won the praise of the players after significantly improving fitness levels. Impressed by his performance, the Indian board had increased his salary and extended his contract by a year immediately after the World Cup.”He blended so well within the team and its structure and contributed immensely to the boys’ fitness. He took immense pains and spent time with individuals to improve their mental and physical toughness,” Wright said. “I can safely say that we all, including the boys, will miss him. But he had to make a personal decision and one could only wish him good luck.”In a statement, Le Roux said that he enjoyed his stint in India, but was delighted to get an opportunity to work with the South Africans. “It was a wonderful experience working with India, in a very different cricket culture, and I learnt a great deal with them,” he said. “It is obviously a great privilege to have the opportunity to work with one’s own national team and I am looking forward to the challenge of helping the team’s performance.”I wish the Indian cricket team and its management all the best for the future and I hope that they will continue to be a winning team.”Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Indian board, said that he understood Le Roux’s stand perfectly. “We have received a communication from Le Roux, resigning from the position of fitness trainer,” Dalmiya said. “Adrian did a wonderful job with the team and this was reflected in the results. The BCCI, however, respects his national sentiments and, therefore, a suitable replacement is being explored.”Working for his own country would obviously mean much more to Le Roux and the BCCI understands his sentiments. It will also give him an opportunity to stay with his family.”Dalmiya ruled out any action against Le Roux for breach of contract. He said that the board had already started the process of looking out for possible contenders for the post, and would announce the replacement soon.

POTCHEFSTROOM, South Africa, Feb 17 AAP – Jimmy Maher is expected to be Australia’s wicket-keeper in the World Cup match against Holland, meaning a break for the bowlers from his hand-written messages.The mismatch at NorthWest Stadium on Thursday gives unbeaten Australia the chance to rest keeper Adam Gilchrist, promote rusty batsmen Michael Bevan and Darren Lehmann and give one or two of its pace bowling trio a breather.The clash with a winless Dutch team, including players the Australians have never heard of, promises to be either a whitewash or a washout, if Potchefstroom has another of its torrential afternoon downpours.Australia is so worried about Gilchrist suffering an injury before a big game that specialist batsman Maher is being given every chance to retain touch and to hone his wicketkeeping skills.When he fields in regular positions, like he did against Pakistan in Australia’s first Cup game, mischievous Maher can’t help leaving scribbled notes on the ground for the bowlers, according to Australian coach John Buchanan.”He will be as happy as a very fat spider behind the stumps and opening the batting,” said Buchanan, stealing one of Maher’s favourite sayings.”I’m sure a number of the bowlers will be happy to see him behind the stumps because they won’t have to read the little messages he leaves at the top of their bowling marks.”It’s believed, in the absence of confirmation, that Maher’s messages are not entirely serious nor motivational. He has a sense of humour.Gilchrist is fit and could play at a pinch but he needs to be kept fresh because his workload is going to be intense next month when Australia starts plotting its course through the Super Sixes and beyond.”Gilly’s fine,” said Buchanan.”He’s probably one of the guys who would like to keep going at this stage but I think from our point of view it will be important for Mabo (Maher) to again gain a bit of ‘keeping experience and also have an opportunity to bat at the top of the order.”It helps us cover any possible bases that need to be covered that haven’t been done already.”Buchanan has a few hopes for Thursday’s game at North West Stadium.He hopes Potchefstroom will not have one of its huge afternoon thunderstorms, he hopes his gun players don’t get injured and he hopes the Dutch play well above their capabilities to give the Australians a decent game.Never heard of some of the Dutch?”Definitely, definitely,” said Buchanan.”That can be the case with some of the leading sides, too, although it’s less likely, I suppose, because we’ve basically seen most of those players.”It’s one of the good things about playing the likes of Namibia or Holland or Kenya or even Bangladesh for that matter – we haven’t seen too much of them and therefore we don’t sit down an analyse the team to death.”We really just get out there and respond to what they throw at us.”Holland lost its first two games to India and England.They don’t have much to throw.

Auckland’s Matt Horne gave the national selectors a healthy nudge to remind them that he wasn’t prepared to be discounted as an opener’s alternative for international cricket when guiding Auckland into the State Shield final today.Auckland will have the chance to win the domestic one-day competition for the first time since 1989/90.Horne batted superbly to score 96 as Canterbury were beaten by six wickets at Jade Stadium.It was cruel misfortune that he missed out on what would have been a deserved century as he wasn’t able to get a gift ball from Craig McMillan far enough behind deep backward point for the boundary that would have brought the reward. Instead Chris Harris took the catch.McMillan was the beneficiary when two sucker balls he bowled in the over dramatically improved his return for the day. He also had Lou Vincent when he hit a soft caught and bowled chance back to McMillan who had gone into the over with none for 35 off four overs but who ended with two for 39 off five.The comparisons between the batting of the two sides could not have been further apart.Auckland achieved the basic requirement of building partnerships as seen from the 70 for the first wicket between Horne and Llorne Howell, 70 for the second wicket between Horne and Tim McIntosh and 55 between Horne and Vincent.Canterbury paid the price for a diffident display of batting which seemed to read more terrors into the slow pitch than was warranted. They also had to admit to superior catching by the Aucklanders who managed some outstanding takes to further penalise the home side.Craig Pryor completed a fine catch running back with the ball dropping away from him to dismiss Shanan Stewart while McMillan fell to a fine reflex catch by Aaron Barnes at short mid-wicket.Only another innings of consequence from Harris, his second in three innings, got Canterbury as high as they did with their 199 for nine wickets. He was out in the 49th over when bowled by Andre Adams for 58, scored off 84 balls. He and Peter Fulton had added 72 runs for the sixth wicket when Fulton was run out, albeit by the third umpire’s decision, when attempting a second run off a no-ball.Had Fulton managed to slide his bat in a straight line, he would still have been in but the movement as his bat ended up at about 30 degrees to the crease meant he was just short of his ground.Shane Bond was used as a pinch-hitter but didn’t succeed and it was left to Gareth Hopkins to strike some lusty blows as 25 runs were added to add some lustre to Canterbury’s innings.Earlier, Nathan Astle had been strangely subdued as he was forced to change the nature of his innings after losing Stewart and McMillan in reasonable proximity. Then when Gary Stead and Chris Cairns were both out cheaply to leave Canterbury 65 for four wickets after 20 overs.Frustration finally appeared to get the better of Astle in the 27th over, Astle was well caught by Rob Nicol at backward square leg on the boundary for 32 scored off 68 balls.Another fine catch was made by Adams to make the last dismissal off the last ball of the innings running around the boundary and diving to dismiss Hopkins from Pryor’s bowling.Auckland’s bowlers generally used the conditions better with Kyle Mills taking two for 36 runs from his 10 overs, Barnes one for 26 off 10 and most impressively of all, Tama Canning one for 23 off 10.Canterbury captain Stead said his side lost too many wickets in the first 20 overs.”Auckland outplayed us in all facets of the game,” he said.Adams would have to be concerned that his 10 overs cost 50, although he did pick up two wickets.Horne said the key to Auckland had been getting off to a good start.”We were able to get partnerships going, some of the wickets have been quite tough but our boys bowled sensationally today,” he said.Canterbury’s bowling lacked penetration. Bond did get through 10 overs to take one for 41 while Stephen Cunis with none for 25, Astle one for 28 off six and Harris none for 27 off his six were the pick of the rest.It was a disappointing end for the Cantabrians, but the Aucklanders came up with the goods at the right time and deserved their final success.

The Lancashire all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is to fly out to India to join England’s tour party.Flintoff, who is currently in Australia with the England Academy side, is expected to arrive in Hyderabad by the weekend.Following England’s two-day warm-up game in Mumbai earlier this week, Coach Duncan Fletcher has decided his side may need to go into the first Test at Mohali on December 3rd with five bowlers.There is also concern about the Yorkshire all-rounder Craig White, who is still progressing towards full fitness after a knee injury.”The process is now in motion to bring Andrew Flintoff over here,” Fletcher said.”We want to cover all bases and we feel we need five bowlers. With the inexperienced attack we have here it would be high risk to go into a Test match with just four bowlers – that could be high risk in England.”Craig didn’t want to let us down and we had intended for him to be either our second or third seamer. Flintoff was with us in Zimbabwe and he made a big impression on us, bowling very fast.”

SHARJAH – Waqar Younis must be a very satisfied man. At stumps on the third day, he had his sights firmly set on a sixth successive Test victory. With plenty of time left in this Test match, to be exact, six sessions, and the hosts already 338 runs ahead with nine wickets standing, it would take a very brave man to put a wager on the West Indies not losing their 23rd match in 27 overseas outings.Having restricted the Caribbeans to 264, nine runs shy of the follow-on target despite skipper Carl Hooper’s heroics, Waqar didn’t ask the visitors to bat again. One is not sure whether he didn’t want to overwork his bowlers or maybe he desired that the West Indies batted last, on even further deteriorated turf.Shahid Afridi offered a chance almost straightaway, on the third ball of the innings, and, unlike the first innings, this time he didn’t get a reprieve, Ridley Jacobs pouching the snick off a Merv Dillon delivery. Afridi went back for a duck, but that minor hiccup apart, the Pakistan batting took the match decisively away from the ‘tourists’.After a slightly tentative start, Taufeeq Umar, intent on making amends for his failures in this series, and Younis Khan, trying to make the most of a rich vein of form, put on 130 runs for the second wicket. Both treated the short and loose stuff appropriately, and by the close, both had hit good half-centuries, with Younis looking well set to make it a hundred in each innings.If anything, Taufeeq and Younis proved that there were no demons in the wicket, and the contrast in the fortunes of the two teams had more to do with the calibre of the Pakistan attack, not to mention the grit and resolve of the Caribbean batting.The post-lunch session saw the West Indies tumble out of the game, with captain Carl Hooper alone defying the fire and venom of the Pakistan attack. Hooper remained undefeated, but his 84, a gem of an innings in the circumstances, failed to save the potential follow-on. But it didn’t matter in the end, for Waqar Younis didn’t enforce it, and going past that particular target may not have made life any the less miserable for the West Indian captain.With Shoaib and Waqar bowling in tandem, Hooper and Dillon found the going tough. Shoaib struck soon, with Dillon edging a good length delivery to Taufeeq at gully, who made no mistake with the low chance. Ryan Hinds looked better than his 11 runs, and when Razzaq relieved Waqar from the attack, Hinds drove him for four but was out, ostensibly plumb in front; umpire Darrell Hair raised the finger, but replays showed that the ball had landed outside leg stump.Jacobs (31) joined Hooper in the middle and the two took the fight to Pakistan in an enterprising stand of 47, before the former succumbed to the wiles of Saqlain Mushtaq, his variation, a ‘doosra’ (the one that goes the other way), pitched on the leg stump beating the sweep to rattle the stumps. The 237 for 7 was quickly 237 for 8 as Shoaib clean bowled an out of sorts Ramnarine. A remarkable display of reverse-swing bowling earned Akhtar his fourth wicket, uprooting Cameron Cuffy’s off-stump with a ball that swung in sharply from nearly a yard outside.Hooper fought on bravely, farming the bowling and attempting some big shots off every bowler, in the process accumulating his 5,000th Test run, the ninth Windian batsman to achieve that distinction, and remained unconquered till the end, but it was not enough, for Pedro Collins was dismissed by Saqlain Mushtaq with the West Indies still 9 runs adrift.Sadly, for the umpteenth time, the West Indies tail had folded without putting up a fight.

The story behind the pie!In 1938 Somerset all-rounder Harold Gimblett collected some berries from the Quantock Hills on his way to play the Australians. As the Aussies were staying at the Castle Hotel he took the berries to the Chef and he put them in a pie.Don Bradman apparently gave it his seal of approval and ever since, whenever the Aussies come to Taunton, their reward from the Castle Hotel is to be presented with a Whortleberry pie.

Unable to capitalise on being inserted by Baroda, Gujarat collapsed to212 all out on Day One of their Ranji Trophy league match at Vadodara.Although the visitors started off well, none of the batsmen were ableto convert starts into big scores. Only skipper Mukund Parmar offeredany resistance, and he too fell, having made 46. Kirat Damani made aquickfire 43 lower down the order, but the runs failed to boostGujarat to a significant total.For Baroda, Tushar Arothe and Shekhar Joshi took three wickets apiece,hastening the end of the first innings. In their batting reply,current Ranji champions Baroda were 8 for no loss at stumps, with bothopeners unbeaten on four.

MELBOURNE, March 5 AAP – Shane Warne will know by next month what he can and can’t do in cricket during his year-long doping ban.But Victoria coach David Hookes would like him to at least visit the Bushrangers’ dressing room some time this week.Hookes again called for the state captain to be able to train with his team-mates so Warne can be ready to play once his ban ends on February 10 next year.The Australian Cricket Board’s legal department is working on the parameters of Warne’s ban, while its cricket operations manager Michael Brown will soon speak to Hookes about the issue.”I think it would be very unfair if he’s not allowed to practise cricket,” Hookes said ahead of the Pura Cup match against Western Australia from tomorrow at the MCG.”I concede his playing ban ends on February 10, but surely he should be ready to play on February 11.”I’m not sure if he can or not, but that’s certainly one thing we would fight on his behalf.”I don’t think anybody anywhere, even Dick Pound, would say he shouldn’t be allowed to at least play on the 11th.”Pound, the World Anti-Doping Agency chairman, has been scathing of Warne during the doping controversy that led to the leg spinner’s ban.An ACB anti-doping committee suspended Warne late last month after he tested positive to banned diuretics.ACB public affairs manager Peter Young said apart from working out the details of the suspension, the board was also keen to help make sure Warne was ready to play once his ban ended.”What we’re trying to do is we’re seeking to understand what he can and can’t do – obviously he can’t play,” Young said.”We also want to help work out a plan that will have him in peak condition and form once he returns to cricket.”Michael Brown is consulting with stakeholders in this and he’s due to speak to David Hookes.”Once the ACB lawyers finish their document, it will be signed off as policy.Young said this would probably not happen until next month.Meanwhile, Hookes was hopeful Warne would attend this week’s match and also talk to his state team-mates.”My understanding is Warney will come down during the game at some stage, just to stay away from the media people and sneak in the back door,” Hookes said.”I’d love to see him during the game – his great strength, Warney, is also his dressing room presence, because he understands the game.”He’s a big calming influence in the changeroom at the right time.”Hookes was also adamant Warne needed to bowl to national-quality batsmen during his ban.”There’s no point saying to Warne, go to some club ground and bowl against yourself, he needs to bowl against batsmen of quality,” he said.

A century stand by Daniel Payne and a cavalier James Hopes has carried the Queensland Academy of Sport XI to 5-190 at tea on the third day of their cricket tour clash against New Zealand at Allan Border Field here today.Hopes made a sparkling 75 before he was caught behind off the bowling of Daryl Tuffey while Payne was eventually bowled for 57 in their 108-run fourth wicketstand.The QAS XI is chasing New Zealand’s first innings of 8(dec)-297.Tuffey (2-50) also took the wicket of opener Chris Simpson for five while Kiwi seamer Dion Nash had 1-22 off 10 overs.

Durham paceman Steve Harmison, who was in the England squad a year ago, took his first five-wicket haul for two years against Nottinghamshire at Chester-le-Street today.But Durham had to rely on their England one-day squad newcomer, Paul Collingwood, to take them within sight of the follow-on target.At 205 for six they were 17 short of the 222 they needed at the close, with Collingwood still there one short of his fifth championship half-century of the season.On a blameless pitch Durham slipped to 96 for four after Nottinghamshire lost their last seven wickets for 94 runs to be all out for 371.Collingwood survived a stumping chance off left-arm spinner Richard Stemp on 15 as he and Danny law repaired the early damage with a stand of 68 in 18 overs.Harmison had one for 67 when Nottinghamshire resumed on 277 for three, but he bowled much straighter than on the first day and finished with five for 100.He was helped by the visitors’ bold approach as Usman Afzaal dragged the day’s fourth ball into his stumps after adding one to his overnight 88.Paul Johnson, who resumed on 89, completed his century off 133 balls with 14 fours and immediately hit two more boundaries before steering Harmison straight into the hands of third man.With a session lost on the first day, plus 40 minutes today and more rain forecast, Durham also went for their shots.Greg Smith produced a beauty to have Martin Love caught behind, and with Andrew Harris and Stemp taking two wickets each they would have had Durham in deep trouble had Collingwood not kept them afloat.