Batsmen are supposed to win State Max matches but somebody forgot to tell the Wellington attack, especially left-arm fast-medium bowler James Franklin.He was at the core of Wellington’s third successive Max success in three years in the preliminary season tournament at North Harbour’s Stadium at Albany today when the defending champions beat Auckland by eight runs.Franklin showed that bowlers do have a role to play in this reduced form of cricket and, in fact, the whole weekend showed that bowlers have learned how to adapt their games. But his was the best of the performances and earned him the player of the tournament title.Whereas in earlier years scores of 120-140 were much more common, a good score in this year’s series was around 90-100.Andre Adams, Andrew Hore and Richard Petrie were the only big-hitters to really have an impact on matches.But for Franklin it was an especially pleasant tournament after the disappointments of missing international selection.”It was good fun. I think the extra game may have benefited us and we were lucky enough to get up over Otago,” Franklin said.”What helped a lot was that the ball held up off a length. We had different plans for different batsmen and I got a few lucky wickets. They seemed to find the fieldsmen on most occasions,” he said.Franklin said he felt he bowled with good rhythm even while bowling within himself and he took the view that every batsman had to be respected and he wanted to keep his runs to about eight or 10 an over, a goal he certainly achieved.”It was a great way to start the year. We won the Max last year and that proved a good start and now we’re looking forward to playing Canterbury in the State Championship in Rangiora,” he said.Wellington beat Auckland by eight runs in a final that turned out to be more exciting than seemed possible, especially after Auckland were 17/5 in the fifth over of the first innings.Wellington hadn’t exactly set the world on fire with 98/6 but it proved a welcome advantage when Auckland were 74/8 at the end of their 10 overs, thanks largely to a hard-hit 25 off 13 balls by Tane Topia.Auckland bowled much more tidily in their second innings and restricted Wellington to 83/7. Adams took two for 19 from three overs.That left Auckland with a target of 110 runs to win.It made the mistake of promoting its big hitters to the top of the order. And while some change was required, the wholesale nature of it didn’t seem to help Auckland in the larger scheme of things. They were three wickets down for 15 runs in the second over.Franklin was irresistible with the ball. In the first innings he took four for 13 from three overs and then in the second innings conceded a six but gained a fourth wicket and saw a run out in his only over. He had five for 21 off four overs in the match and eight wickets for 68 runs off 11 overs in the whole weekend, an outstanding effort at Max level.There were some moments when Adams threatened to steal the win from nowhere for Auckland by bringing up his half century from 14 balls. But Wellington captain Richard Jones said the superb catch taken at square leg by Shane Battock diving forward to snare the chance from Topia just off the grass had galvanised the side.”The whole thing about Max is that it can turn so quickly on just one thing. It can be a couple of Max hits, a couple of wickets or something like Shane Battock’s catch.”We knew we had the bowlers to finish the job and we had to have Matthew Walker bowling when Andre was hitting out.”Having Matthew and Paul Hitchcock at the end was great while having Jimmy Franklin and Andrew Penn to open our attack was a key because they take wickets,” he said.Auckland did recover their second innings to the point where with two overs remaining they only needed 18 runs. But they lost captain Matt Horne caught and bowled to Hitchcock while only four runs were conceded.And then Walker bowled an outstanding last over which cost only five singles.Wellington got home by eight runs.Jones said afterwards that yesterday’s loss to Auckland had been a blow to the team and they were very disappointed.”But it was a good wake-up call for the lads and it was a case of how we would come back against Otago,” he said.They knew Hore was a key man and once they removed him in both innings they felt more in charge.”Hore can make or break a game, both of Max and one-day games and it will be the same for us in the State Shield,” he said.

Australia was given a taste of life without Glenn McGrath as New Zealand briefly took control of the third and deciding cricket Test at the WACA here today.With opener Lou Vincent joining an elite band of players by scoring a century on debut and captain Stephen Fleming ending years of self-doubt by scoring his first century in 42 months – Australia was on the ropes for much of the day.New Zealand finished at 7-293 with the match evenly poised.It’s no coincidence that New Zealand’s ascendancy corresponded with McGrath’s absence.The tall fast bowler, who has played 41 consecutive Tests, was out of the attack for a total of four hours today when he suffered back spasms after bowling fiveovers.When he left the field to go to hospital for precautionary scans, New Zealand was 2-19 and hovering on the brink of another batting slump.When he returned to the attack late in the day, the Black Caps were 3-226 after Vincent (104) and Fleming (105) added 199 for the third wicket.With Steve Waugh having to manage his bowling assets, the Kiwis had the luxury of 10 overs from Damien Martyn, Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting while ShaneWarne bowled much more than he would have anticipated on the first day of a WACA Test.Just enough pressure was taken off for the New Zealanders to flourish.The tourists were also helped by cool, overcast and windy conditions and a pitch which lost some of its bite as the sun went off it.”It was a pretty flat wicket – an ideal wicket to play cricket on,” Vincent said.As soon as McGrath took the ball again, things went downhill for the Kiwis.While he didn’t take any of the four wickets to fall late in the day, his presence alone appeared to lift the Australians who had drifted through the middle session.New Zealand slumped from 3-264 to 7-281 as Brett Lee (2-89) and Jason Gillespie (3-79) did the damage with the second new ball.Vincent admitted “things looked good for a while” when McGrath was away.”It’s mixed emotions towards the end there I was hoping we’d finish a maximum five down – seven down’s a bit of a kick in the guts,” Vincent said.New Zealand skipper Fleming preferred not to talk about his own century saying “it’s Lou’s day”.And it was Vincent’s day – from the moment he was beaten all ends up by the first ball he faced from McGrath.”I played and missed but I didn’t nick it – so I thought it could be my day,” he said.He praised Fleming for getting him through the day to become the sixth New Zealander to make a century on debut.”He’s an inspiring leader, he kept me cool and composed at times in the game when the timing, the head and the feet were all over the place.”The 23-year-old Vincent had never opened the batting in a first-class game before today but the Kiwis gambled on his raw potential and positive attitude as they sought to become the first side in nine years to win a series in Australia.That is still a possibility but Fleming said the way Australia roared back in to the contest was a warning for his team.”It was a very impressive the way they came back but at seven for 293 we’re still in the game and we’ll be looking to make 350-plus tomorrow.”Gillespie removed Craig McMillan (4) and nightwatchman Daniel Vettori (2) before Lee sent dangerman Chris Cairns (8) back to the pavilion.At stumps, Nathan Astle was on 28 and Adam Parore on five.While Fleming played down his effort, even the Australians stopped to applaud his century.It’s been three and half years and 48 innings since Fleming made his last century – against Sri Lanka in May 1998.In his 63rd Test it was just his third century – although he passes 50 every second match he plays – and his first against Australia.

Our best wishes to all our readers for Christmas and New Year. With no cricket to report, ZCO will not appear next Friday, 28 December, but will be back on Friday 4 January.By that time Zimbabwe will have completed the First Test match against Sri Lanka and, for whatever reason, current form suggests we will be defeated heavily, that our national team does not have the confidence or spirit at present to make a close game of any of the three Test matches. The best we can hope for is to avoid three defeats in a series, which is a very real prospect for the first time in our history.This may sound defeatist, but it need not be so. We have the talent to do better, and the experienced members of the team have proved in the past that they can compete at Test level and in tough conditions. It’s all in the mind, and the players must work it through for themselves, as Andy Flower has done. Hopefully coach Geoff Marsh will begin to make an impact on them and help them to do so. Until then, it is futile to entertain any hopes of victory or even equality in Sri Lanka.Look at Dion Ebrahim and Craig Wishart, to provide two examples. In three one-day internationals in Bangladesh they were brilliant: 211 runs for twice out and 152 for once out respectively. Move them to Sri Lanka and what happens? Ebrahim 35 runs in four matches, Wishart 38. Much stronger opposition and harder conditions, but should it make all that much difference? Is there any reason why they couldn’t score half as many runs in Sri Lanka – unless the problem was in the head?Perhaps some sort of sports psychology course is required for our players. It is infuriating to see so many of them performing feebly, when we know they can do better, when their past history shows they have done better. We look to Geoff Marsh to instill some Australian confidence and spirit into our team.Part of the problem lies in what might be termed a national inferiority complex. Zimbabwe is a small country that has historically always been overshadowed by its much more powerful neighbour South Africa, and I suspect our sports teams have always been handicapped by that view. That perhaps was why Rhodesia, as it then was, never won the Currie Cup in which we participated until 1980.Under the captaincy of Mike Procter we were favourites for three or four years in the early seventies, blatantly robbed once by the South African Board who overturned the decision of the umpires to award a match to Rhodesia when Eastern Province refused to complete it with Rhodesia on the verge of victory, but never quite made it. When we looked like doing so, a disastrous batting collapse would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Perhaps the most talented cricket team in this nation’s history never quite put it together consistently when the pressure was on.There is also the matter of culture. Australians are brought up in a hard, brash, confident culture, while Zimbabweans are expected to be self-effacing. This was best illustrated to me when the Australian Academy team, which included fast bowler Brett Lee, visited this country three years ago. They played a match against a team from our local academy, then in its first year.The young local players had never faced anybody anywhere near the pace of Lee, and being Australians they swooped on them like sharks scenting blood. Several of our young players, instead of relishing the challenge, were clearly terrified of facing Lee. I spoke to the Academy coach Rod Marsh about this, asking how he would encourage such a young player. He looked bewildered and said straight away, "I don’t know; I’ve never come across that problem."So this is an additional problem facing our cricketers, and changing a culture is clearly impossible, when a confident child is squeezed into the mould of the society by peers and well-meaning adults alike. We do not want to breed a nation of brash, arrogant children, but there is a difficult middle course of building confidence without arrogance – Andy Flower being the ideal role model here. When that is not part of a culture, though, it remains a problem for our cricketers.New Zealand is a country similar to ourselves in that they have always been overshadowed by their larger neighbour. They actually took 26 years and 45 matches to record their first victory. They had the occasional world-class player and the occasional good tour, such as to South Africa in 1961/62 and England in 1973, but until the eighties victories were rare.The arrival of Sir Richard Hadlee as one of the all-time great bowlers, with a good supporting cast, made them for a period during the eighties perhaps second only to West Indies in world cricket, and in that decade they won three series and lost only one to Australia. They maintained their reputation as perhaps the most pleasant team on the international circuit, one that they sadly lost after the retirement of Hadlee and perhaps tried to make up for the comparative lack of talent by adopting the verbal war game. Zimbabweans have not enjoyed their attitude on the field ever since Martin Crowe’s team was the second Test-playing side to visit us in late 1992.Due to lack of size and resources, New Zealand and Zimbabwe will never be as consistently strong as Australia and South Africa. But we will have brief periods of glory and can certainly give most teams a hard game most of the time. New Zealand have reached that state, although sadly they have lost their once-fine reputation for outstanding sportsmanship. One day too Zimbabwe should also reach that state, although it will not be until we get a genuine black majority in our side. Let us hope that we can go one better than New Zealand and enjoy a reputation for both good play and good attitude.A final thought is that we could well do with some more experienced players in Sri Lanka. Alistair Campbell, Guy Whittall and Paul Strang may not be in the best of form, but in such difficult conditions their experience of several tours there would be invaluable. It is clear that several of our young players re currently on learning curves that are too steep for them. One or two more old hands could make the difference between competitiveness and humiliation. We do not want any more double-figure totals in the Test series. If Andy Flower fails, that could very well happen.VAUGHAN HANDLED THE BALLThere has been another clash of cultures on the cricket field this past week, this time in India, where England batsman Michael Vaughan was given out `handled the ball’ when he thoughtlessly picked it up with his hand on the popping crease while batting.This was quite in accordance with the laws of the game, but since Vaughan’s action was not in any way depriving the opposition of a wicket, the question is whether it is within the spirit of the game. The Indians obviously believe it is; the English do not. The incident was reminiscent of the notorious Murray Goodwin incident at Harare Sports Club two years ago, when the Sri Lankans ran out Goodwin when he moved down the pitch in the belief the ball was dead. The English, like some of the Zimbabweans then, predictably but wrongly retaliated by making the atmosphere as vicious as possible when the opposition batted. This sort of thing brings the game into disrepute.My rhetorical question to such incidents is: "Is it really worth it, to take a wicket in circumstances that so greatly offend the opposition?" Unfortunately, in today’s world of professional cricket where there seems to be no idea of professional etiquette, the answer is often yes.When two sides differ so strongly on incidents like these, there should be some method of resolution. It is difficult to legislate for the spirit of the game. My thought is therefore that the captains of the various Test-playing countries, who hold an annual meeting every year, should get together and decide among themselves exactly how they want to play the game between themselves, bearing in mind the image of the game.Do they really want bouncer warfare, such as that practised by Brett Lee on South Africa’s hapless tailenders? Do they really want sledging or excessive appealing? Are they happy to condone players slagging each other off on the field or pressuring umpires to decide in their favour when they know the batsman is not really out?Occasional incidents, like those involving Goodwin and Vaughan, also need discussing. If teams do not have a common understanding on such matters, there will be much unnecessary antagonism, bitterness and vengeance both on and off the field. If they decide that such dismissals as those inflicted on Vaughan and Goodwin are acceptable, then fair enough. At least we will all know where we stand. But when two teams accept different interpretations of the spirit of the game, there will be trouble and the game itself will be brought into disrepute.Various teams, most notably India, are not happy about the role played at times by match referees. Perhaps they need reminding that the system only came into operation because of the excesses of players who should have been controlled by their captains. Right now would be a good time for international captains to take some of the responsibility back into their own hands by agreeing on a code of conduct for their teams, a code that portrays the right sort of image of the game. If this is done and adhered to, there will be small need for match referees.Nobody wants to see Test cricket lose its hardness. But it can still be played in a spirit of good humour and chivalry, without bitterness or malice. Let’s see the Test captains take the lead, especially Steve Waugh. He commands tremendous international respect and he has noticeably reined in the excesses of the Australian team in recent months. He is reported to have a great respect for the history and traditions of the game. It would be good to see him leave as part of his legacy something concrete to ensure that the best traditions of the game are still upheld after he has left it.

Though this may have been Australia’s national day, New Zealanders’ cricketers were again the ones with cause for celebration as another enchanting victory came their way in the VB Series today. This one – registered by the margin of 77 runs over an again-disappointing Australia – was a tribute to disciplined batting and excellent pace bowling in front of a large crowd in Adelaide.While some will tell you that 26 January – the date that marks the anniversary of the beginning of white settlement in Australia – is a time for paintingthe town red; enjoying very little shut-eye; and letting one’s hair down, the New Zealanders blessed the occasion with another excellentbusiness-as-usual performance. Instead of heading to a hardware store; an optometrist; or a hairdresser, they came to the Adelaide Oval with theirsleeves rolled up and a thirst for hard work on a warm and humid day.Returning to the New Zealand team upon his recovery from a wrist injury, Nathan Astle (95) led the way with the bat, lifting his team toward a totalof 5/242 before he tired amid sapping Adelaide heat to fall five runs short of a 12th one-day international century.Lou Vincent (55) was also impressive and the big-hitting Chris Cairns (39*) inspired a breezy finish, even if the Black Caps did not capitalise aswell as they might have done on an outstanding mid-innings position.Man of the match Shane Bond (5/25), bowling with electric pace, then all but settled the fate of the contest as he snared three wickets in the spaceof 17 deliveries to leave Australia in peril at 4/26.Michael Bevan (45) and Steve Waugh (30) launched a fightback but received little support as the tourists attained a bonus point and an invaluableeight point lead at the head of the competition standings.The Australians’ problems stemmed chiefly from their inability to restrain Astle and Vincent in a 128-run partnership for New Zealand’s secondwicket through the early stages of the afternoon.Vincent, with his score at 23, benefited from an exceptionally tight call in his favour after third umpire Daryl Harper had analysed a series of replaysof the completion of a desperate single to Steve Waugh at mid on. Astle, who ultimately passed Martin Crowe to become New Zealand’s all-timeleading runscorer in one-day internationals, also dodged a bullet at 33 as he survived a vociferous caught behind appeal off the bowling of ShaneWarne (1/33).Otherwise, the pair played largely without perturbation – not even in the face of excellent bowling from the trio of Warne, Glenn McGrath (2/36)and Jason Gillespie (1/40).In keeping with the pattern of its battles against its trans-Tasman rival in this series, the home team’s run chase was compromised by its inability toassemble a truly threatening partnership. Openings continued to be created by accurate and patient bowling, outstanding field settings, and were thensealed by poor strokeplay.Bond keenly and skillfully exploited the desire of Ricky Ponting (0) to lash forcefully at an outswinger; blocked a busy run-scoring avenue forDamien Martyn (2) through point and encouraged him to drive a catch there instead; and then conquered the defences of Adam Gilchrist (21) with aferocious inswinging yorker that has genuine claims on being the best delivery of the international summer.He later escorted the last patrons from the dance floor when he tilted back the off stump of Gillespie (15) and found the top edge of the bat of AndyBichel (7) as he attempted to hook. His final figures, well-deserved ones at that, represented the third-best by a bowler in New Zealand one-dayinternational history.Given that Dion Nash (1/31) had also encouraged the out-of-sorts Mark Waugh (0) to play back to him off a leading edge; Chris Harris (2/35)lured Bevan and Andrew Symonds (11) into meekly spooning high catches down the ground; and Daniel Vettori (1/44) forced Steve Waugh toedge a superb delivery to slip, things ran the Black Caps’ way for virtually the entirety of the evening session.It was not so much the gate-crashing of a party by the end.Rather, it was all but the closing of the door on any idea that the New Zealanders will not feature in the finals of this tournament.

Playing Gujarat in their Ranji Trophy quarter-final match at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, Bengal, riding on a Sanjib Sanyal century, played slowly if steadily to obtain a slight upper hand at the end of the first day’s play.Winning the toss, skipper Rohan Gavaskar had no hesitation in opting to bat. The Bengal top-order, however, was blown away by Lalit Patel, who scalped three wickets in the first 13 overs and four during the day. Gavaskar himself made 24 off 53 balls, sharing a minor stand with Sourav Ganguly, in the side to play himself into form ahead of forthcoming international engagements.Ganguly made only 36 off 76 balls before falling to Bhavin Mehta, as did his skipper. The sixth wicket, however, yielded 176 runs off 279 balls, as Subhomoy Das and Sanjib Sanyal played with refreshing verve to notch up quick runs.Das made 77 off 173 balls, but the real star was Sanyal. Scoring 109 off 152 deliveries, he hit 16 fours in his unbeaten knock, lending impetus to a run rate that was, for the large part of the Bengal innings, in the doldrums.More wickets, including Das’, fell before the close of play, and Bengal found themselves on 277/7 when play ended. Sanyal was still at the crease, and the home side will look to him to add as many runs as possible in their first essay before taking the field to dominate Gujarat with the ball.

HOBART, Dec 21 AAP – Queensland, led by Ashley Noffke, tightened its grip on the Pura Cup cricket match against Tasmania in Hobart today.At stumps on the third day, Tasmania, after being forced to follow on, was 4-99 in its second innings and trailed by 118 runs.Scott Mason was 40 not out and Dan Marsh was on three.Noffke took three wickets in the first innings and the first two in the second to ensure Tasmania was left with an impossible rearguard action.On a Bellerive Oval wicket wicket still playing dreadfully low at times – embarrassed curator Peter Apps said he was perplexed by its behaviour – Tasmania was bowled out for 191, 217 runs behind Queensland’s 8-408 declared, with captain Jamie Cox making 88.Only briefly did Tasmania, which resumed at 2-50, look capable of averting the follow on.After losing two early wickets, Cox and Marsh stayed for almost an hour and a half while adding 70 runs.But eight minutes before lunch Marsh, on 32, got a faint edge to Andrew Symonds, after which the only question was whether Cox could get a deserved century.He was second last out when Noffke ended his defiant, 330-minute vigil.Cox gave two tough chances and needed treatment after being cracked on the hand, but also hit 15 boundaries – many of them cracking cover drives – and showed, as Martin Love did before him, that despite its difficulties, scoring was possible on the wicket.He barely had time for a shower, however, before he was back in the middle and this time lasted only three balls before Noffke produced a rare rearing delivery that flew to gully.With Michael Dighton and Michael Di Venuto falling cheaply either side of tea the Tigers appeared to be subsiding to an embarrassingly lopsided defeat.But Mason and Scott Kremerskothen frustrated the Bulls for 100 minutes and ensured the match went into the fourth day.Kremerskothen finally fell for 34, trying to pull a Lee Carseldine delivery that kept low and trapped him in front.Mason, a fringe state player for years who is cementing his place in the team through sheer grit, has grafted for 148 minutes.But there’s no batting form to follow him and Marsh.

CricInfo has recorded an outstanding week of Internet traffic during the first National Bank Series Test match between New Zealand and India at Wellington.According to Hitwise, which measures Internet usage, CricInfo achieved a 92% share of visits to all cricket sites by New Zealand users between December 7-14.Paul Hashfield from Hitwise said: “The site showed a massive increase in category share in the global Sports parent category in the days leading up to the National Bank Tests, and it has now been consistently placed at No 1 for several months.CricInfo commanded more than 15% of all New Zealand visits to the global sports category on Saturday, December 14. This category covers over 1400 sport sites monitored by Hitwise.CricInfo’s own traffic reports show that on the first day in Wellington there were 4.2 million page impressions made, which was more than for all of the second or third Tests against England earlier this year.Preliminary internal CricInfo figures show that there 1.2 million page impressions for the Super Max International, 3.4 million impressions for the Central Districts tour match and 10.2 million for the first Test.

ADELAIDE, Jan 7 AAP – The lights were hours from being turned on and those planning to head to the cricket after work were still at their desks when Australia A defeated Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval today.The match was over by 5.16pm (AEDT), just three hours and one minute after it started, including a 10-minute break between innings, as Australia’s second-string side humiliated a self-destructing Sri Lanka by 10 wickets.The tourists’ inability to cope with a bouncy, but true, Adelaide pitch was exposed as they were skittled for 65 in just 25 overs, with veteran Hashan Tillakaratne (11) the only Sri Lankan batsman to reach double figures.All-rounder Ian Harvey took the stunning figures of 3-2 from four overs, after opening bowlers Brad Williams and Nathan Bracken took two wickets each to lead the destruction.In reply, Australia A openers Greg Blewett and Jimmy Maher both made 28 not out as their side reached the target in 11.5 overs and less than an hour, in one of the most emphatic victories imaginable.Only an Australian Cricket Board (ACB) decision to stage a second, 25-overs-a-side exhibition match gave the 10,224-strong crowd and television viewers the chance to see cricket under lights.Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, it also gave them a chance to record another loss.In the second match, Australia made 171, Andrew Symonds starring with 81 from 59 balls, before Sri Lanka made 8-146 in reply.Sri Lanka’s performance provided little hope it could improve its winless record so far in the tri-series against Australia and England, when the competition resumes with Sri Lanka meeting Australia at the SCG on Thursday.Australia A captain Darren Lehmann said he was surprised at how difficult Sri Lanka found batting on what he thought was a good pitch.”Adelaide Oval’s not traditionally a fast wicket, when we get on some fast wickets obviously we play really well against them, but they didn’t play well at all today,” Lehmann said.Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya was also baffled.”It was very disappointing, especially the batting, nobody seemed to occupy the crease today, it was a big problem,” Jayasuriya said.”We need some confidence in our batting, we need the batsmen to get some runs.”Remarkably, Sri Lanka’s total could easily have been far lower, if not for some wayward bowling in the early overs by Williams and Bracken, with several wides which went to the boundary contributing to the 26 extras, by far the biggest component of the meagre total.That saved Sri Lanka from recording its lowest ever limited overs score, which was 55 against the West Indies in Sharjah in 1986/87.In some positive news, star off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is expected to play on Thursday, after recovering from a hernia operation.But Lehmann, who is recovering from a bacterial infection, said he was very tired after the match and not sure whether he would return to the Australian side on Thursday.”We’ll just have to wait and see really, see what the doctors say,” he said.”I had some more blood tests today … I won’t know until the team’s announced on Thursday, I suppose.”

South African middle-order batsman Jonty Rhodes has undergone surgery on the broken hand he sustained whilst fielding in the World Cup match against Kenya in Potchefstroom yesterday.Rhodes injured his right hand when trying to catch Maurice Odumbe in the 31st over of the Kenyan innings.An X-ray in Potchefstroom revealed a break of the fifth metacarpal bone on his right hand.Rhodes was taken through to Johannesburg yesterday afternoon to see a hand specialist who, under local anesthetic, reduced the fracture and inserted two pins to hold the bone together and facilitate union at the fracture site by immobilisation.He then rejoined the team in Potchefstroom.South African team physiotherapist Shane Jabaar said,” the specialist felt that Jonty would have the pins in for about 3 weeks to allow for the bones to knit together and the fracture to heal. Thereafter there would be some pain, but that could be managed.”Jabaar added,” during the period of recuperation Jonty will continue to train and exercise in order to strengthen and constantly improve the functional use of his right hand.”Rhodes himself said it was an awkward time for it to happen, but remains positive.” I suppose if I was going to break something during the World Cup then now is as good a time as any, at least we have got three weeks before the Super Sixes. Its not the end of the world, I have played with pain before.”Rhodes broke the same bone but in his left hand in Australia on the 1992/93 tour.As to his further participation in the World Cup, Rhodes said ” I have no idea what the selectors plans are for me, I will just have to wait and see.”Selection convener Omar Henry said that he will be speaking with his fellow selectors and the team management through the day and would hope to make an announcement regarding Rhodes’s further participation in the tournament by late Thursday afternoon.

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is delighted to announce the re-launch of Junior Gladiator Membership.Young supporters, who are under 16, can join the club for season 2003 for only £12.Their membership will entitle them to

• Free entry to all Frizzell County Championship home fixtures
• Free entry to all one day National League home games
• Free entry to all Twenty20 home matches
• An autographed team photo
• Birthday and Christmas cards signed by the players
• Free family ticket for the all new an exciting Twenty20 competition
• A unique Junior Gladiator cap for season 2003.

Tom Richardson, Chief Executive saysFor more details please contact Peter Hall on 0117 9108007.