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West Indies have no need to start praying for an outstanding victory over Australia because they have been doing it three times a day already. Dwayne Bravo revealed the method was part of galvanising the team, which needs 241 runs to overcome the world champions in the opening Test.Bravo took 4 for 47 to finish off Australia’s second innings at 167 and West Indies reached 46 for 1 at stumps, giving the hosts confidence of recording an upset success. “We are in a very good position at this time and it is up to us as a team to continue the good work,” Bravo said. “Once we ensure that we don’t lose early wickets to let the Australians back in the game, and once we have a good first session, I have no doubt that we are going to go on and win the game.”Bravo will have an important role to play with the bat on an up-and-down surface while the team will also look to Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul for major contributions. Sarwan was not out 8 while Devon Smith had reached 19.”Once you apply yourself and be selective in your strokeplay you can get runs,” he said. “We have to go out there, be positive and believe we are going to get the runs.”Bravo scored a brisk 46 in the first innings and knows he has been guilty of not going on to make big scores. “That is something I’ve got to work on,” he said. “I’ve been working on it and I know I will get over it. I’m 24 years old, I started at a young age and I am learning my cricket at the international level, which is a difficult thing.”Over the past year there have been many off-field changes to the West Indies squad and Bravo said the assistant coach David Williams, the former West Indies wicketkeeper, has helped bring more “togetherness”. “That wasn’t there before,” Bravo said. “One thing that stands out is that the team has been praying three times a day and I think that is the most important thing.”The bowlers formed a unified front after Fidel Edwards and Daren Powell started Australia’s collapse. After one over of the fourth morning the tourists were 18 for 5 and Edwards and Powell finished with three wickets each.Australia were thankful for Andrew Symonds’ 79 and his partnerships of 52 with Brad Hodge and 74 with Brad Haddin. “He played brilliantly,” Hodge, who made 27, told the ABC. “He’s such a powerful man, such a dangerous striker, that he really opened the game up straight after lunch when they brought the spinner on. It got the ball rolling again for us.”

You’ve heard of recycling paper, bottles and aluminium cans but family tea merchants Taylors of Harrogate have taken it a stage further, by teaming up with Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the Woodland Trust to recycle old cricket bats. Cricketers across the county are encouraged to donate their unwanted pieces of willow, which will be sent to a school in South Africa and for every one received, Taylors of Harrogate will help plant a tree in Yorkshire, with the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity.The idea came about after Taylors received a plea from Ray Crowther from Baildon West Yorkshire, who spends his winters coaching cricket at Port Alfred High School, just outside Port Elizabeth. Many of the pupils are passionate about cricket, but few can afford their own equipment. According to Jessica Ambler from Taylors of Harrogate, `We were very interested to hear of Ray’s work in South Africa and hope that cricketers all over Yorkshire will rise to the occasion. Recycling old bats will also help the environment in a second way because as a small thank you to everyone who contributes a bat to our appeal, we will help plant a tree in Yorkshire with the Woodland Trust.’No bat is too old or too battered! All you need to do is to bring your old bats to the County Office at Headingley before the end of the current season, in time for them to be flown over 6000 miles for the South African summer.For more information:
Please contact Oliver Mantle from Taylors of Harrogate on 01423 814000 or Simon Hopkinson from the Woodland Trust on 01476 581112

Hampshire’s James Adams is set to make his first-class debut in the vital relegation scrap against neighbours Sussex at Hove tommorrow. They also welcome back Nic Pothas and Alan Mullally both who have been sidelined due to injury recently.Adams who made his first-class debut earlier this season for British Universities v Sri Lankans will hope to bring the form that has seen him score an abundance of runs for the 2ndXI.Hampshire 12: Jason Laney, Neil Johnson, James Adams, Robin Smith (captain), John Francis, Will Kendall, Nic Pothas (wicket-keeper), Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shaun Udal, Alan Mullally, James Tomlinson, James Hamblin.

New Zealand all-rounder Andre Adams was a relieved man tonight having come through a significant test in his recovery from a stress fracture in his back last summer.Adams said after taking a five-wicket bag for the paltry cost of 33 runs, by Super Max standards, that he had felt no pain in his back.He said it was the first time since his injury that he had bowled at the sort of intensity he had been at for the match and there had been a period tonight where he was bowling at 90-100 per cent.While he was operating off a short run-up that was usual for him in Super Max cricket, and he admitted that his greatest problem was when bowling off his normal run-up and then the landing phase.There was no way he could attempt to play Test cricket at the moment because he couldn’t bowl 20 overs a day.He is targeting the One-Day Internationals starting on Boxing Day.He said the Indian batting had been something of an unknown quantity, especially with the quality of the players to come during the match.At one stage he even admitted to sitting back a little and just enjoying some of the shots that they were playing, and especially those unleashed by Sachin Tendulkar.When the pressure went on the bowlers at the end as New Zealand had only 109 runs to defend, Adams said he especially enjoyed bowling with Paul Hitchcock.While he now plays for Wellington, when he lived in Auckland before transferring south, Hitchcock had been Adams’ captain for Takapuna and even then he had been as good a death bowler as there was.Adams was also impressed with the effort put in by Brendon McCullum during the New Zealand second innings. McCullum had only the one bat in the game, sharing the wicket-keeping for one innings each with Chris Nevin.”He’s cleaned up his game and has a huge amount of talent,” he said.

Rod Tucker, the former Tasmania and New South Wales player, has become the first umpire to be promoted from Cricket Australia’s project group to the international panel. While Tucker’s appointment is in the smaller role of a television official, it is a big step for the former allrounder, who is part of a production line of retired first-class performers who have switched from whites to black-and-whites.There is no place on the national panel for Dave Orchard, the former South African official, who stood in 44 Tests and 107 one-day internationals. Last season Orchard, whose final Test was in 2004, was used as a mentor for younger umpires, but he has been dropped and his only duties will be with Queensland Cricket. Orchard has told the state’s officials he is not retired and wants to keep going, and they say he rated highly in the end-of-season appraisals.A Cricket Australia spokesman said there were umpires with better claims to a position than Orchard. “The selectors assessed that the panel had sufficient experience to assist in the development of the less experienced umpires and that the new additions deserved their opportunity,” he said. “It’s also the ICC’s intention for Cricket Australia to have more access to the Australians on the ICC elite panel over the summer to help out the younger umpires.”Tucker’s place was created by Steve Davis’ rise in April to the ICC’s expanded elite group, which also includes Simon Taufel, Daryl Harper and Darrell Hair. “Rod’s nomination to the international umpires’ panel and the promotion of Mick Martell and Tony Ward to the national panel illustrates the successes of Cricket Australia’s umpiring pathway,” Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s general manager of cricket, said.Martell and Ward are joined on the national list by fellow newcomer Andrew Craig while Tim Laycock has been cut alongside Orchard. Laycock has been given an assignment during the Emerging Players’ Tournament in Queensland next month, but Orchard, who stood in the series last year, has missed out on that too.Australians on the ICC’s elite panel
Steve Davis (SA), Darrell Hair (NSW), Daryl Harper (SA), Simon Taufel (NSW).Cricket Australia’s international panel
Peter Parker (Qld), Bruce Oxenford (Qld), Rod Tucker (TV umpire, NSW).National umpires’ panel
Jeff Brookes (WA), Andrew Craig (WA), Simon Fry (SA), Ian Lock (WA), Mick Martell (WA), Bruce Oxenford (Qld), Peter Parker (Qld), Bob Parry (Vic), Paul Reiffel (Vic), Rod Tucker (NSW), John Ward (VIC), Tony Ward (Vic).

The XXXX Queensland Bulls will commence their 2002-03 ING Cup seasonwithout the services of Stuart Law after he was omitted today from theteam for Sunday’s season opener against NSW at North Sydney Oval.Law was the notable omission in today’s team, with the State selectorsopting to utilise young batsmen Lee Carseldine, Clinton Perren andBrendan Nash in the order alongside established players Jimmy Maher,Martin Love and Andrew Symonds.Queensland Chairman of Selectors Andrew Courtice said the decision hadbeen a difficult one but was “purely performance-based.””I’ve assured him that he will be considered for future one-dayselection on form like everyone else,” he said.”Obviously you feel sympathy when you make a decision to omit a playerfrom a team and particularly so when it is a player of Stuart’s stature.You are aware of the ramifications of a decision like this, but asselectors, you can’t let the sympathy you feel for a player influencethe decision-making process.””But it was a particularly tough choice, as two of the selectors in Pauland Dick have played a lot of cricket with Stuey and I have known himfor a long time.””We have spoken and I know he is very disappointed but he told me thathe will be doing his best to force his way in and that is what I hadhoped, and expected, to hear from him.”Courtice said the ING Cup selection was a separate issue from theselection of the Bulls’ Pura Cup team to play NSW at the Gabba nextweek.The Queensland team for the match starting on Wednesday will beannounced later this week”The four day team is a stand alone team – over the past few years wehave looked at the one-day and four-day as different sides, and Stuart’sselection prospects in the four day game will be judged on his four-dayform, as it is for all of the players.”Law, who stood down as Bulls captain at the end of last season afterleading Queensland to its five domestic championships in the past eightyears, expressed his disappointment at his omission.”I’m hurting right now, that’s no surprise,” he said today.”I went to England wanting to improve my one-day game because I felt Ihad been below par for a few seasons. I believed I worked it out overthere and averaged 50 plus in the one-day game for Lancashire.”I came back looking to putting that into practice without the burden ofcaptaincy under the new regime we have in place.”I’m not in this team but I haven’t played my last one day game forQueensland. Now I’ve got to keep working my backside off – keepimproving my cricket and not give up.”We’ve got a big season ahead and personally this is a hiccup, butteamwise it is an opportunity,” Law said.Law is Queensland’s most capped one-day player, with 71 matches, and thethird-leading runs-scorer with 1916 runs at 32.47. He holds the recordfor the fast one-day century in Australian domestic one day history (74balls) and has Queensland’s highest individual score of 159 (v Tas,1993-94).The Queensland team also includes young pace bowlers Scott Brant andDamien MacKenzie who made their first class and one day debuts for theBulls last season.XXXX Queensland Bulls v NSW Blues, ING Cup, Sunday, October 13: JimmyMaher (c), Martin Love, Lee Carseldine, Clinton Perren, Andrew Symonds,Brendan Nash, James Hopes, Wade Seccombe, Ashley Noffke, MichaelKasprowicz, Scott Brant, Damien MacKenzie (all 12 to play).

Leicestershire look certain to field an unchanged side against Worcestershire in the Norwich Union League match at Oakham on Sunday, despite losing to Glamorgan on Tuesday.Head coach Phil Whitticase described the performance against Glamorgan as the side’s “poorest of the season” but added:”I am sure it was just a blip and the players deserve the chance to put things right at Oakham.”With Charles Dagnall and Rob Cunliffe both unavailable for selection because of injuries, Whitticase seems likely to name an unchanged side with Devon Malcolm once again on the sidelines. The policy this season is to rest Malcolm in one-day cricket so that he can concentrate on the Championship.It means that Matthew Whiley and Jamie Grove will be the new ball attack with support coming from Phil DeFreitas,Vince Wells,Carl Crowe, Darren Maddy and Zimbabwe all-rounder Grant Flower who made his debut against Glamorgan.Flower has taken over from Michael Bevan as the Leicestershire overseas player while the Australian is away on one-day international duty.The likely team for the game at Oakham is: Wells, Ward, Sutcliffe, Stevens, Flower, Maddy, Burns, DeFreitas, Crowe, Grove, Whiley.Meanwhile Cunliffe is to see a specialist on Monday about the damaged finger which has kept him out of the first team in recent weeks.He was able to play for the Second X1 away to Derbyshire this week, scoring 43 a rain affected match which ended in a draw. Derbyshire made 355-7 and Leicestershire were 145-5 when the game was abandoned.

Hampshire’s Young Cricketers are through to the quarter-finals of the ECB Under-19 County Championship.They will play Herefordshire at Long Marston, Hertfordshire next Tuesday and Wednesday.Hereford swept through their West Midlands group, winning all their matches.The other quarter-finals are: Essex v Cambridgeshire, Somerset v Staffordshire, Lancashire v Devon.

BRISBANE, Nov 15 AAP – Test paceman Andy Bichel pulled off the catch of the season at the Gabba and ripped the heart out of Tasmania’s top order today to put Queensland in sight of its first Pura Cup outright win of the summer.Bichel and stand-in captain Michael Kasprowicz, who featured in a vital 50-run eighth-wicket partnership after the Tigers roared briefly late in the first innings, had the visitors reeling at 4-9 in early in their second innings before rained stopped play with Tasmania in deep trouble at 4-42.Queensland made 229 to take first innings points and Tasmania returned to the field 42 runs behind and with showers threatening.It wasn’t the lightning or the approaching storm which had the Tasmanians ducking for cover – Bichel’s thunderbolts zapped the top order claiming opener Michael DiVenuto (0), Ricky Ponting (0) and Daniel Marsh (1) to a woeful shot.Bichel stunned all with his caught-and-bowled to dismiss Ponting three balls after removing DiVenuto.Ponting, who fell cheaply for seven in the first innings, attempted a half-hearted pull shot to a short delivery and skied the ball on the seemingly deserted leg side.Bichel took off like Carl Lewis, sprinting 30 metres and diving full stretch to take a spectacular catch before being almost buried by excited teammates.”They appreciate it, I haven’t run that far to take a catch off my on bowling before,” said Bichel, whose Test rival Brett Lee had taken seven wickets so far for NSW in the match in Sydney.”I hope it’s typical Queensland weather and it’s hot and steamy and the balls swings around and makes it difficult as possible for the batsmen tomorrow.”At one stage Tasmania’s second innings scorecard of 2-0-0-1-1-0 looked more like a telephone number to order a pizza.How the Tigers would have loved the rain to have hit earlier to save them from cyclone Bichel.Kasprowicz’s dismissal of opener Jamie Cox (2) moved him to within one wicket of joining fast bowling great Jeff Thomson (327 wickets) as Queensland’s second most successful four-day domestic bowler.Earlier, Tasmania hauled back in the game when Ponting introduced Scott Kremerskothen into the attack and he claimed the wickets of Stuart Law (18) and Andrew Symonds (0) to have 2-0.At that stage the Bulls slipped to to 4-122 and, when wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe (4) was the victim off a lucky run out as the ball deflected onto the stumps off bowler Shane Jurgensen’s fingers and Bichel went for a duck, they were 7-173 and fighting for first innings points.That’s when Kasprowicz led like a captain, teaming with Perren (41) to steer the Bulls to the two points.Kasprowicz’s 26 — after being twice put on his backside by bouncers from Shane Watson and also struck on the body — equalled the number of runs he had scored for the Bulls last summer.The rain arrived at 4.09pm (local time) with Tasmania at 4-42, but it was too late to put out Queensland’s fire.

A century from opener Gautam Gambhir in the India A second innings saw the tourists gain an overall lead of 417 runs over Sri Lanka A at the end of the third day of the first unofficial Test between the two sides being played at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo.The start of play had earlier been delayed in the morning because of rain. The players finally took the field at 11:45 A.M. with a minimum of 86 overs being scheduled. India A, who had secured a 115-run first innings lead after bowling the home team out for 200 on Friday, got off to a rousing start.Openers Gambhir and Akash Chopra were in fine nick. A confident Gambhir, fresh from his 79 in the first innings, went after the bowling with unrestrained glee. At the other end, Chopra decided to play the waiting game. The partnership progressed at a healthy rate before Chopra (51) fell with the score reading 138-1 in 38.3 overs.His dismissal, however, failed to stem the flow of runs with Gambhir continuing to prosper in the company of next man Sridharan Sriram. The partnership between the two left-handers realised 58 runs before Gambhir fell after making 120 off 167 balls with 15 sweetly-timed fours. Gambhir’s rich vein of form, coming as it does at a time when Shiv Sunder Das is struggling in the West Indies, must have significantly boosted the former’s chances of being included in the Indian squad for the upcoming Test series against England.Gambhir’s departure saw Hrishikesh Kanitkar striding out to the middle. But after making just seven, the India A captain had to suffer the mortification of being castled by fast bowler Pushpakumara.Rohan Gavaskar, who replaced Kanitkar, started patiently in a bid to ensure that his first-innings failure was not repeated. Sriram could not keep him company for long, being dismissed for 45 after the two had only added 14 runs to their team’s score. The Tamil Nadu left-hander’s dismissal set the stage for next man Jai Prakash Yadav.Using his bat like a bludgeon, Yadav rattled up 46 runs off just 50 balls with two fours and three sixes before bad light saw play being called off. Walking off with him was Gavaskar, who was batting on 22.With India A having already gained a massive overall lead, the duo might not be called upon to strap on their batting pads on the final day. What we might see is India A pushing for a victory after making an overnight declaration. With leg-spinner Amit Mishra in fine bowling form, their chances to go 1-0 up in the three `Test’ series look bright indeed.