Dr Ajith Perera, a former Sri Lankan umpire, has started an an ‘Enabling Environments for Everyone’ campaign to make sporting venues in Sri Lanka accessible to handicapped or disabled people. His campaign ties up with the government declaring 2007 as a “Year of Accessibility’ and Perera – a paraplegic since a car accident in 1992, days before he was due to make his umpiring debut – is determined that something tangible is done to make public places accessible to wheelchair users.”Over 30% of our population experiences reduced ability to move and climb even a few steps,” said Perera. “Also included here are our much talked about ‘War Heroes’ from the armed services and police. A whole spectrum of impairments affects different people, at different points in their lives and chances are high that each one of us, for different reasons, is certain to spend some time facing this reality. But 70% of these numbers are still healthy and able people, very much wanting to get going with daily activities of life.””Going to a cricket match could be one such desire. But this will remain a dream since none of our sporting venues, including the international grounds, provides even the basic facilities for this diverse and large sector of people. Sports they say ‘bring all together’ but in Sri Lanka, with poorly designed facilities at venues, even sports deny their inclusion.”He recalled how, when England toured Sri Lanka three years ago, there were inquiries from wheelchair-using tourists who wished to travel to Sri Lanka. “But they were turned away because of the total absence of essential basic facilities at match venues and at our ‘star-class’ hotels”, said Perera. England are due again in November and he hoped that the new Minister for Sports would make certain that the desired result would happen within the year.”The government, backed by the Ministry of Social Welfare, has already gazetted regulations for accessibility. Environments at cricket and other sports venues, especially for those requiring assistance with their mobility, is now a must by law,” said Perera.Drawing on his experience from officiating matches in Lancashire, Perera said “Most of our clubs to a large extent depend on ‘Monetary Grants’ given by Sri Lanka Cricket. They continue to cry for more such charity money. Of course it is the moral duty of SLC to give equally to every club more assistance in all possible avenues to uplift the game’s quality here. But it’s time cricket clubs and associations must also think optimistically, identify income generating ideas and put them into action to meet their own financial requirements.”The backbone of their success is that they see and respect the inevitable ‘disability of people’ as human diversity and realise it is their moral responsibility to welcome all people to the matches with empathetically modified facilities at grounds. The money spent here is considered as a ‘big investment’, not expenditure. They understand that every person is a potential income earning opportunity for them and that a spectator lost is a loss of revenue opportunity,” said Perera.”The saddest thing in Sri Lanka is that administrators have tragically forgotten that we are a rapidly ageing population. Unless their basic needs are met at match venues, we will soon lose this increasing big sector of the population at grounds.”

On paper, the opening game in Group C is little more than a battle for bragging rights between two of the tournament’s minnows. Neither Kenya or Canada are expected to progress to the Super Eights, but such is the format of the competition that the winner will only need to beat one of the group’s two big boys – England and New Zealand – to reach the second stage. And anyone who watched most of England’s generally poor one-day performances in Australia will have no doubts that they are there for the taking.Kenya upset the odds to reach the 2003 semi-finals, albeit thanks to New Zealand boycotting their match in Nairobi and a skewed points system, and they harbour ambitions of reaching the second round this time. The four years since the 2003 success have been marked by bitter infighting and virtual cricketing anarchy, but they have got their house in order just in time, and arrived in the Caribbean on the back of victory in the ICC’s World Cricket League.That success featured a resounding win over the Canadians, but this game will be much closer as Canada showed signs of finding form of their own in the tournament. Both teams lean heavily on experienced players with a few promising youngsters thrown into the mix. Over a longer series of games, Kenya would probably come out on top, as they did in a tri-series in Mombasa in January, but this is a one-off and it really is too close to call.Perhaps the most surprising name on the team list will be former West Indies bowler Anderson Cummins, now 40 years old but surprisingly called into the Canadian squad for the Kenyan tour and retained despite some distinctly averages performances. He stands to become only the second player – the first was Kepler Wessels of Australia and then South Africa – to appear for two different countries in the World Cup.While Kenya boast a home-grown side, Canada lean heavily on expats who have qualified for the country under ICC regulations rather than learned their game there. It remains a source of unease among many, but rules are rules and Canada cannot be blamed for making the most of them.Both sides have strong batting line-ups, although Kenya continue to struggle to find a productive opening partnership while Maurice Ouma has failed to establish himself as an international opener despite ample chances to do so. Kenya probably have the better bowling side, and Peter Ongondo is one of the best new-ball bowlers among the Associates.The St Lucia pitch is reported as being hard and even-paced, while there is the chance of some showers during the latter part of the day.

Chris Dehring, the World Cup chief executive, has conceded the seven-week tournament is too long but said shortening it would have risked important matches being washed out. He also argued that ticket prices were not too high for locals and said the small crowds at some venues were caused in part by the live television coverage in the host nations.Dehring said the next World Cup, to be held on the subcontinent in 2011, might be abridged. “One of the shortfalls of the last World Cup in South Africa was that rain played such an important factor,” Dehring told The Courier-Mail. “We decided this time to make sure you had adequate rain days so there is a rain day for every game.”But, of course, that is going to elongate the tournament. It is a difficult balancing act but you would always prefer a shorter event. It is difficult to maintain momentum in an event over such a long period. We would have preferred a shorter event had it been possible, but to do that there would not have been rain days. I think they may change it next time.”Matthew Hayden said this week the tournament was dragging on too much for everyone involved.Keeping fans interested for nearly two months has proved a challenge and crowds at some venues have been very disappointing. However, Dehring said attendances were not as disastrous as they appeared.”The lower-end ticket prices were certainly cheaper than what they were for a standard one-day international in the West Indies,” he said. “In some countries ticket prices had an impact on attendances but in some countries it clearly didn’t.”In Jamaica it didn’t because the matches involving the West Indies there were very well attended. The fact that it was live on television in small countries where it has never happened before has made a real difference.”Organisers have also been criticised for a perceived crackdown on musical instruments, which some spectators said removed the unique Caribbean feel from the stadiums. Dehring said there was no reason fans could not take instruments like conch shells, provided they were pre-registered with officials.”The conch shell thing was precautionary because we wanted to know who was bringing things,” he said. “We wanted to make sure they were reputable people.”

Ricky Ponting insists Australia are ready for Sri Lanka’s veteran bowlers Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas in Saturday’s World Cup final in Barbados. Australia beat Sri Lanka easily in the Super Eights match but Mahela Jayawardene chose to rest Muralitharan and Vaas while Lasith Malinga had an ankle problem.”Sri Lanka have a chance to make a statement against us,” Ponting said after Australia secured their passage to the final with a seven-wicket win over South Africa. “There’s no doubt Sri Lanka are a good team, but we are very confident after what we’ve done in the last seven weeks. Winning games with big margins gives us a lot of confidence.”We executed our gameplan very well the last time we played them. They had their full batting line-up and we bowled them out. We know Murali will do what he does. Lasith Malinga is bowling well and Vaas is a good bowler with the new ball.”Australia have won all ten of their matches in the Caribbean and are unbeaten in their last 28 Cup games, a run stretching back to the 1999 tournament in England. Saturday’s final in Barbados will be a repeat of the 1996 final when Sri Lanka beat Mark Taylor’s side by seven wickets in Lahore.

Australia and Zimbabwe met 12 times before the first Test series, six of those in World Cup matches, and the first encounter gave Zimbabwe one of their finest moments when Duncan Fletcher led Zimbabwe to victory at Trent Bridge in 1983. That, however, remains their only win to date.

1999-2000

Wisden Almanack | Cricinfo
It took eight years after they had secured Test status for Zimbabwe to meet Australia in a Test, and when they did the result was much as expected. Australia won the match by ten wickets and then strolled to a 3-0 whitewash in the one-dayers. Both Steve and Mark Waugh made centuries in the Test and limited-overs games respectively, while Glenn McGrath picked up six Test wickets. Zimbabwe fought well, but were clearly outmatched and made basic mistakes at crucial moments. For the Australians it marked the start of a record-breaking run of success.
Test: Zimbabwe 0 Australia 1
ODIs: Zimbabwe 0 Australia 3

2000-01

Wisden Almanack | ?Cricinfo
Zimbabwe arrived in Australia for the tri-nation Carlton Series on the back of a one-day series draw in New Zealand, and although they only won one of eight matches, they lost two others – one each against West Indies and Australia – by one run. The victory came when they bowled West Indies out for 91 defending 138, Heath Streak leading the way with 4 for 8, but in their final match they almost pulled off one of the great one-day wins, falling one run short of Australia’s 302 for 5 when needing 14 off the last over.

2002

In a sign of things to come, Australia pulled out of a proposed tour citing security and safety issues.

2003-04

Wisden Almanack | Cricinfo
Streak led a side already weakened by retirements, and while they lost both Tests – by an innings and 175 runs at Perth and by nine wickets at Sydney – they fought hard all the way, taking the game at the WACA into a fifth day. Matthew Hayden made the headlines there, breaking Brian Lara’s world record in scoring 380, but it was all rather low key. The public’s reaction to the unseasonable Test series was tepid, with an aggregate crowd of 18,363 over four days at the SCG and 24,051 over five days at the WACA a week earlier. Zimbabwe stayed on for the VB Series, which also included India, but failed to win any of their eight matches, although they within three runs of beating India thanks to hundreds from Sean Ervine and Stuart Carlisle.
Tests: Australia 2 Zimbabwe 0

2004

Wisden Almanack | Cricinfo
Coming against backdrop of serious internal rows between Zimbabwe’s players and board, which meant that Tatenda Taibu replaced Streak as captain, and considerable political unrest, Australia again came under massive pressure to boycott the tour on moral grounds. In the end they went, although Stuart MacGill stayed away for reasons of conscience. That did not bother Dean Jones, who signed a contract to commentate with a promise not to mention politics. “I’m just there to watch the cricket and I don’t give a rat’s arse what he does about his country,” he said. The tour was supposed to include two Tests, but they were scrapped when Zimbabwe suspended itself from Tests on the eve of the first match. The three ODIs were brought forward, Australia won them all without ever looking that interested, and Ricky Ponting described the Zimbabwean team as “pretty ordinary”, which is Australian for terrible.
ODIs: Zimbabwe 0 Australia 3

Manoj Tiwary, the Indian middle-order batsman, has been ruled out for three to four weeks after scans revealed a tear on his right shoulder. He will undergo surgery on May 14, the Indian board announced today.Tiwary, the Bengal player yet to make his international debut, picked up the injury during a fielding session before the first ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur and was sent home after consulting an orthopedic specialist. On returning to Mumbai, he was examined by Dr Anant Joshi, and MRI scans specifically revealed a tear of antero inferior labrum. Dr Joshi will be carrying out the arthroscopic surgery as well.”Post surgery, he is likely to be in a sling for three to four weeks and will then require rehab before full function can be achieved,” the BCCI stated in a media release. India’s next assignment will be a three-match series against Ireland at the end of June and Tiwary should have enough time to recover before the tour begins.

With the Twenty20 World Cup round the corner, Ricky Ponting has offered a tempered endorsement of cricket’s newest format, saying while the money generated from this format is beneficial to the game, there is a danger of overkill affecting the players.”I’ve never been a big fan of Twenty20 cricket, but I gather that there’s a lot of interest and money in this version of the game,” Ponting said, “and we need money for the growth and development of the game. That said, the international calendar is packed these days and on top of that Twenty20 cricket won’t do much for the players.” He was in Bangalore as part of a sponsored event for school children.The Twenty20 World Cup will be held in September in South Africa, and Ponting’s Australia will be heavily favoured to add to the one-day championship they retained in April. The shortest format of the game has gained popularity since its international debut in 2004-05, when New Zealand hosted Australia. That win included, Australia have won three of the five Twenty20s they’ve played.With a fairly lukewarm reaction to the recent Afro-Asia Cup, critics have been quick to say that there’s little to separate such games and the hundreds of charity, exhibition and benefit games that are played around the world. Ponting didn’t pick sides in the debate but agreed that perhaps the scheduling of such events should be revisited.”They have all got their place, I suppose,” he said. “I was having a chat with Rahul Dravid recently and he told me that this probably wasn’t the best time to organise such a series. It’s the off-season for some teams and the weather’s pretty hot. Even the scheduling of India’s tour to Bangladesh wasn’t the best; you had a Test match washed out there. We in Australia are following the policy of rotation and resting the players to save them from fatigue and burnout.”It was more than rotation and rest, of course, that helped Australia to their third consecutive World Cup title in the Caribbean. Australia had lost five one-day internationals in a row leading into the tournament but turned things around when it came to the crunch. Ponting credited this to a strong core group and belief.”It was important that I sat down with all the players and had a discussion with them,” Ponting said. “In New Zealand, we played good cricket despite the fact that we were missing five or six of our main players. And in the World Cup our confidence got going after some good results in the initial games, especially after we notched up that victory in the big game against South Africa.”The team is now in the hands of Tim Nielsen, who succeeded John Buchanan as coach. “He’s a respected man”, Ponting said of Nielsen, “and he’s done some very good work down at the Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence at Brisbane. The players and I are excited to work with him. It should be a good relationship.”Ponting was in Bangalore as a guest of ING-Vysya to provide tips to 350 schoolchildren. He arrived on the dais to thunderous applause from the children, clad in white, and a few doting mothers. After fielding a volley of questions from the enthusiastic emcee – including a ‘rapid-fire’ round where he was as quick with his witty responses as he is on the pull – and the media, Ponting spent close to two hours with the children in the nets and off the ground. Ponting batted against them, turned his arm over a couple times and the children were seen listening in rapt attention to his batting tips.Talking of these aspirants, Ponting said: “They are the stars of tomorrow and I’m happy to see love for cricket among these children.”

There have been some curious, if hardly surprising, official responses to the Stanford 20/20 tournament, from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and from one prominent regional sponsor.Presumably the new leadership of the WICB, formally installed at the annual general meeting in Port-of-Spain last weekend, will quickly clarify the relationship between the two.It is still not clear whether the WICB has agreed to ratify Stanford as the official, regional 20/20 tournament, setting aside a period of five weeks at the start of the season in exchange for an annual fee of US$1 million. As it would eliminate the financial, organisational and administrative responsibilities while still being under its auspices, such a deal would seem to be money for jam for the WICB which has seldom been known to operate anything at a profit, far less of $1 million.A statement by Tony Howard, the WICB cricket operations manager, last month that the next first-class season would start three months earlier than usual, in October, and the follow-up from the Stanford organisation that confirmed the dates, and fixtures, for the 2008 tournament as January 25 to February 24, suggested that an accord had been reached.Yet the swift and indignant reaction of Colin Murray, marketing manager of Carib Beer, sponsors of the first-class season for the past five years, indicated otherwise.Stanford’s dates are in the middle of what is usually the Carib tournament and he wondered out loud whether Stanford’s 20/20 wasn’t for his “own personal and selfish gain”. Seeing the Texan billionaire intends to repeat the grants in the inaugural year of $280,000 to each of the participating territories, increased to 21 for 2008, in addition to the $1 million to the champion team, $500,000 to the runners-up and equally unprecedented sums for individual performances, it was a comment seemingly based on pique rather than reason.It was hard to spot anything selfish in such numbers.Such money goes to struggling individual associations that received little or nothing from the WICB in the past and is appreciably more than all the other sponsors of West Indies cricket put together. Murray further questioned how Stanford’s investment would guarantee that the WICB operations “are stable and will continue to benefit from his involvement”. That, of course, is up to the WICB to determine although its record in financial matters is not encouraging.While Murray was making his objections known, Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the ICC, was revealing his members’ “genuine concerns” over Stanford’s plan for a Super Stars tournament, provisionally scheduled for June 2008. It would feature four ICC full-member teams playing against each other on a single elimination knockout basis with the winner to take on the Stanford Super Stars for a jackpot of $20 million, all at the Stanford ground in Antigua.But it needs the ICC’s approval, for which Stanford has guaranteed the WICB $1 million for “successfully negotiating”. It is an extension of the planned match between the Stanford Super Stars and South Africa that was baulked last November as it clashed with the first week of the official West Indies tour of Pakistan.While Speed said ICC members were wary about the effect it would have on players’ workloads, the cap on 20/20 Internationals and the television agreement with ESPN-Star, he also noted that they wanted a slice of the cake “to ensure that their participation will benefit as many of the game’s stakeholders as possible to help facilitate its continuing strong growth”.This really is a bit rich coming from ICC members who drove a torpedo through the fragile hull of the WICB’s finances six years ago by altering the payout for teams on overseas tours. Whereas such contracts had previously been subject to bi-lateral negotiations, a system on which the WICB heavily relied for its very survival, the other nine ICC full members voted to standardise it. It meant that the host was now responsible for all the expenses of the touring team while retaining gate receipts, sponsorship, broadcasting rights and the like.The upshot was obvious. While Australia, England and India, for instance, raked in the money from attendances (up to £3 million for a Test at Lord’s or the MCG) and phenomenal television contracts, the West Indies, with the small size of their populations, economies and grounds set against the high costs of accommodation in the tourist-cricket season, scrunted.

So the rich and powerful became richer and more powerful, and the poor and weak, of which the West Indies are the prime example, got poorer and weaker. It is an arrangement that officials estimate cost the WICB $10 million in six years. Yet, now that a wealthy investor comes forward to give West Indies cricket the financial boost it badly needs, and to encourage its development in unfamiliar Caribbean outposts previously ignored by both the WICB and the ICC, the ICC wants in on the action to further what he calls the game’s “continuing strong growth”.That, presumably, means helping fund ICC tournaments such as the Under-19 World Cup qualifiers in distant lands involving countries such as Afghanistan, Japan, New Guinea, Qatar, Thailand and Vanuatu and the Intercontinental Cup of four-day matches between the likes of Canada, Kenya, Namibia and Scotland that do not play four-day matches in their own competitions – and never will.Whether that represents “continuing strong growth” or not, Speed and the ICC might recognise that there has been just the opposite among some of the more established members, not least the West Indies where there is continuing strong decline.With the cooperation of the WICB, Stanford’s money can help turn the present weakness into traditional strength again. But the ICC should appreciate that it is not for sharing.

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court to restrain the Indian board from “claiming to the public that they represent India”.The ICL has also contended that the BCCI cannot “threaten” players and deny the pensions of former cricketers who have joined the league, or prevent the unofficial league to use cricket stadiums across the country. It has also stated that the BCCI cannot prevent the ICL from using the name of the country or from using the national flag.A day after the ICL announced its list of players, the BCCI barred the Indian players on the ICL’s roster from playing any BCCI-recognised tournaments. Previously the board had clarified its stand on current and former players joining the ICL when it issued a statement saying: “Every individual has a right to choose whether he wishes to associate himself with the BCCI or any other organisation. However, if he associates himself with any other organisation, he will not derive any benefit or be connected to any of our activities in any way.”The matter is expected to come up for hearing on Monday.The board’s reaction was cautious. “What you say is news to me”, vice-president Shashank Manohar told PTI. “If they (ICL) have gone to court and if we are sent a notice, then in that case we will attend the court and say what we want to.”

ScorecardThe second Test between India Under-19s and Sri Lanka Under-19s petered into a draw on the final day at Kandy, but there was enough time for Abhinav Mukund to crack another hundred.Mukund smacked 108 from 134 balls in India’s second innings, adding to his superb 205 in the first innings to take his team to 245 for 6. It was an impressive recovery for India having earlier been reduced to 50 for 4. Sachith Pathirana took 3 for 65, including the wicket of Saurav Tiwary who starred in a 145-run stand with Mukund, while Ishara Jayaratne took 2 for 33.Mukund finally fell for 108 and, with India leading by 349 runs, the match ended in a draw.