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Ian Healy has urged Shane Warne not to retire, and to grit it out through the controversies that surround him and his mobile phone.”I hope [Warne does not retire] because then he will be remembered solely for the last 12 months,” said Healy, speaking to the AAP news agency. “He needs to clear his head, and the harder it gets for him the clearer his cricket focus will become, and hopefully he will give us two good years of cricket, whether it’s for Victoria or Australia. Hopefully he can have a crack at being remembered for what cricketers will remember him for – his great skills.”Healy did say, though, that Warne might find it hard to get back into the national team. “You couldn’t say he would come back and slot back into the team with the good form of Stuart MacGill. He might never get back in the Australian team. That doesn’t bother me as long as he plays some good cricket for Victoria … that will be enough.”

Division OneMiddlesex v Lancashire, Lord’s
Lancashire have another rare opportunity to put James Anderson to gooduse, before England filch him for the rest of the summer. He has recoveredfrom the ankle injury that kept him out of the last two one-day matches,and returns to the team alongside Gary Keedy. Now that Phil Tufnell hasfled to the jungle, Middlesex have struggled for spin options, but theyoung Pakistani legspinner, Imran Tahir, may be the answer to theirproblems. but the young Pakistani legspinner, Imran Tahir, may be the answer to their problems. Tahir plays for Norton-in-Hales in the North Staffordshire & South Cheshire League. Last season, he equalled the league record of 104 wickets, and in the process broke Norton’s old record of 97… as held by a certain Sir Garfield Sobers. He impressed during Thursday’s C&G victory against Northants, and is set to make his Championship debut.Nottinghamshire v Surrey, Trent Bridge
Nottinghamshire may be sitting pretty at the top of the CountyChampionship, but yesterday, had it not been for Paul Franks, they wouldhave slumped to the most embarrassing defeat in their history – againstLincolnshire. Franks, however, won’t be around to bail them out againstSurrey. He has aggravated a calf strain. Surrey have a couple of injuryworries themselves – they are waiting on the fitness of Ian Salisbury(finger) and Alex Tudor (knee). Even so, they remain confident enough toomit Graham Thorpe for the second match running.Warwickshire v Sussex, Edgbaston
Sussex’s Jason Lewry and Tony Cottey have both been passed fit afterinjuring themselves in the field during last week’s win against Kent.Lewry will play despite breaking his nose on Carl Hopkinson, as he ran into take (and hold) a catch, while Cottey’s bruised thumb should not hamperhim unduly. Warwickshire have been in prime batting form this season, butthey will be without one of their linchpins, Nick Knight, who hasundergone knee surgery and is replaced by Jonathan Trott. Watching fromthe Edgbaston stands will be the Kenyan legspinner, Collins Obuya, who isdue to make his debut next week.Division TwoGlamorgan v Gloucestershire, Cardiff
Gloucestershire, top of the table and fresh from a 324-run annihilation ofBuckinghamshire, are in prime form for their trip to Cardiff. They all butthrashed Durham in their last match (only for the weather to intervene)and the arrival of Jonty Rhodes has brought out the best in Tim Hancock,who blasted a career-best 135 in the C&G Trophy on Thursday. Glamorganwill be without their captain Steve James and Darren Thomas, both of whomhave both undergone knee operations. Much will be resting on MatthewMaynard, with two Championship hundreds to his name already this term.Yorkshire v Derbyshire, Headingley
Yorkshire have begun their Championship season in a fury after theirhumiliating relegation last season, and Derbyshire will be hard-pressed toresist them at Headingley. Michael Vaughan, with the grand total of 16runs in three innings so far this season, will be determined to mark hisappointment as England’s one-day captain with a sizeable innings. DarrenGough, however, will be missing after tweaking his hamstring againstEssex. Derbyshire have injury doubts surrounding Michael Di Venuto(hamstring) and Shahid Afridi (finger).Tour matchWorcestershire v Zimbabweans, Worcester
Zimbabwe were eased into their tour of England – by opposition andprotestors alike – with a ten-wicket victory over the BritishUniversities, but the real test begins at New Road. Grant Flower, who hassince spoken out in support of his brother’s black-armband protest in theWorld Cup, scored a century in that opening match, and with the first Testjust two weeks away, the onus is on Zimbabwe’s lesser lights to follow hisexample – Flower is the only man in the party with a Test hundred to hisname. South Africa’s allrounder, Andrew Hall, makes his debut forWorcestershire, after returning from the tour of Bangladesh.National League, Division TwoScotland v Somerset, Edinburgh
Another anticlimax, or a rapid return to the form that saw off Durham intheir inaugural fixture? Scotland were hammered back into their place byMarcus Trescothick in the C&G Trophy, and the sight of him marching out topick up where he left off (103 from 70 balls) may be more than theScottish bowlers can take.

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International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed is still to speak to former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar about the possible conflict of interest he has as a journalist and also chairman of the ICC’s Cricket Committee – Playing.He told a press conference in Christchurch, New Zealand today that he would be speaking with him in the next day or two.He was referring to English administrators, including England coach Duncan Fletcher, being upset at Gavaskar’s published comments that England were the world’s best whingers, at the end of the one-day series against India last week.But Speed added that he was mindful that Gavaskar was a professional journalist required to write what he thought on matters for his editor, and that in his role with the ICC he was a volunteer.”I wouldn’t categorise it as reining him in or carpeting him as I have seen reported.”It is the first time it has come up,” Speed said.One of the great things about the game of cricket was the number of volunteers who were involved and while there was a well-resourced administration base building up he was mindful there was still a big role for volunteers to play.ICC president Malcolm Gray said he had talked with Gavaskar and that Gavaskar had told him he saw no conflict of interest.Gray also intimated the war of words between England coach Fletcher and Gavaskar might not yet be finished after Gavaskar had read Fletcher’s comments in response to his own.

Sanjayan Thuraisingam, the chief architect of Canada’s ability to bowl out Scotland in the ICCT 2001 has been hampered by an injury at the CWC 2003.Despite several medical consultations in South African, it appears that some further diagnostic testing may need to be completed.Word from South Africa is that further medical diagnostics may require that Sanjay return early to Toronto in order to avail himself of top notch medical facilities and specialists in Canada.We trust that ‘Jay shall speedily return to the cricket arena after medical clearance.

Kent County Cricket Club today announced that Matthew Fleming is to be Club Captain for 2002 and will captain the Club’s one-day team. David Fulton will captain the Club in the County Championship. Fleming, who has captained the Club in all competitions for the last three years, will assume responsibility for Club affairs and captaincy of all one-day competitions whilst David Fulton will assume responsibility for the team in the County Championship.Commenting on the announcement, Kent’s Chairman of Cricket, Mike Denness, said:”Last season was one of great success for the Club but there is always a need to look to the future and there is no better time than now to look to plan beyond Matthew. We believe that Matthew and David can work well together as we strive for further success for the Club into the future. We see the combination providing continuity in all competitions and we also see it as sensible planning for the future.”Matthew Fleming added: “I very much look forward to working with David next summer. He and I have talked at length about making this combination work and we are convinced that, with the squad of players we have, we can make a real success of the arrangement.”David Fulton said: “I am delighted to be asked to take on more responsibility and look forward to working with the players in order to make a real impact on the Championship next season.”

The England side is back in India after a break, and they are currentlypreparing in Kolkata for the one-day internationals. The break haspushed many issues to the back burner, and the main thing to be seen nowis if the visiting side can win the one-day series. They will quiteobviously be short of match practice, while the Indians have just playedfor the Challenger Trophy in Bangalore. Nasser Hussain is sure to havedrawn up a game plan to choke the Indians, and it remains to be seenwhat his counterpart does, in terms of both strategy and batsmanship.England have shown a lot of grit in India over the years, and althoughthe current team lack extraordinarily talented cricketers, it hassufficient spirit and determination.

When talking of talented cricketers from the British Isles, the names ofIan Botham and David Gower spring to mind. Botham was a tremendouscrowd-puller all over the world, as was Gower. The Indians got a chanceto see him in action in 1981, in the Jubilee Test at Bombay, which hewon for his side almost single-handed. Though many of his followers mayhave failed to pronounce his name correctly, they were on the money whenit came to his achievements.If Botham was the hero for his aggressive brand of cricket, Gower wasthe people’s favourite for his elegance and fluent touch with the bat.Gower’s performances dictated the mood swings of his followers, and atthe end of the day, they were content to see him out in the middle. Theirony in Gower’s case was that he was generally dubbed as a “laid-back,”and this description apparently did not please him. Mind you, his recorddoes indicate that he did things right somewhere down the line. It was apity that these two players ended their careers in a run-of-the-millway. Their attitudes did not go down well with the team management atthe time, resulting in their being dropped. Their exit was not on theirown terms, and they called it quits when they realised that they werenot going to get back into international cricket.

Another former English legend whom the Indian public did not get to seemuch of was Geoffrey Boycott. Although he figured in a few Tests in theearly 80s, he broke off in the middle of the Indian tour under KeithFletcher, and one got the impression that he was eager to tour the subcontinent during his career. Fate has decreed that Boycott spend moretime in the sub-continent as a commentator, and his Yorkshire accent hasmade him a favourite with the viewers in this part of the world. Hisanalysis and his forthright views are refreshing, although hisdetractors might find it strange that he talks about how runs should bescored quickly by batsmen to set up a victory.Be it Gower, Boycott or Botham, they are all aware of the difficultiesin a cricketer’s career, and they ensure that they do not run down thecurrent lot. They have chosen their own way of expressing their views,with objectivity being the main criterion. These renowned cricketershave kept in touch with the game after their retirement, and theycontinue to entertain and enlighten television viewers with theirpleasant comments and insightful observations. As the saying goes, menmay come and go, but this trio will go on for ever.

Geoff Marsh, the Zimbabwe coach, has criticised the state of English pitches, claiming that they are a poor breeding-ground for top-class international bowlers.On the eve of the Zimbabweans’ final game of a disappointing tour of England, Marsh said: “A lot of the wickets we’ve played on here this summer have given too much assistance to the faster bowlers. I’m not saying this as an excuse for our batting performances – with our inexperience we would probably have struggled on better wickets.”He continued: “But playing on pitches offering generous seam and bounce can give a false impression of a bowler’s abilities. Don’t get me wrong, England have a good pace attack with Gough, Anderson, Johnson, Harmison and Hoggard. The danger is that they don’t develop into complete bowlers who are capable of winning Test matches on flat Asian, Australian, South African and West Indian wickets.”Marsh added: “Gough is an exception to that because he’s proved himself overseas, but he may not play much Test cricket in future. It’s young bowlers like Anderson, Harmison and Hoggard who will need to learn subtle variations and master different deliveries to take wickets when the ball doesn’t swing and seam.”Marsh, who played 50 Tests for Australia as an opener, pointed to the pitches at Lord’s for the first Test and Headingley, Cardiff and Bristol in the NatWest Series as examples of bowler-friendly conditions. “It’s not just international matches that are affected. We played at Worcester at the start of the tour where the ball moved off the seam throughout the match.”Kabir Ali took five wickets in our second innings, but in terms of developing his skills he would have been better off bowling on the tracks we played on at Hove or Shenley, where every wicket had to be earned.”Look at the example of a bowler like Heath Streak. He’s revelled in the conditions over here because he’s a classic English-style swing bowler. But he’s also learned how to adapt his game to be effective in Zimbabwe and around the world on less-responsive surfaces.”

Canterbury achieved a commanding position, partly with the complicity of Central Districts, before stumps on the first day of their State Championship match at Pukekura Park today – a day of four innings and four seasons.Central’s decision to ask Canterbury to bat on winning the toss and on a day shortened by 20 overs because of rain was ill-considered and by stumps Canterbury had raced at more than 3.5 runs per over to 301/5.Jarrod Englefield, Michael Papps, Gary Stead and Chris Harris, who was 46 not out at stumps, contributed with innings of varied character – though not as varied as the weather that gave them their backdrop – to Canterbury’s satisfying opening day.Anyone who paid a fleeting visit to Pukekura Park today and went on to relay impressions of the scene to friends or workmates faced the risk of being directly contradicted about the conditions in which the match was played.Some might have said it was brilliantly fine and others that it was oppresively cloudy, some that there was never a threat of rain and others that it had rained with persistence and ferocity. It might have been called, alternately, calm and distressingly windy, warm and bitterly cold.In truth, it was all of these things at different times – hot and cold, calm and windy, clear and cloudy, thunderous and benign. The match was framed by two periods of rain – one before the match that delayed the start by 90 minutes and another at the end that brought play to a close as the final scheduled over was being bowled.There were two further rain interuptions during the day – immediately after lunch – and these in combination stripped 20 overs from the diet of the afternoon. But rarely, and in a more sublime setting, has cricket been played in such extremes.When the rain of the morning had passed, the day become sweetly, genially sunny. There were blue skies and from the sea beyond the city – visible as a blue smudge from the eastern terrace – there was a warm and soothing breeze.But that breeze, which grew in intensity, brought up with it from the coast a bank of marauding grey cloud which first crept on the ground and then, when backs were turned at lunchtime, pounced and brought forth a sudden and surprising deluge.Then the weather became fine again as the clouds raced before the wind and there was an afternoon as pleasant as any cricketer might beg. But again there was to be a change and the wind became boisterous and the clouds returned with bully intent and brooded over the ground.And where there had been sunshine there was gloom, and suddenly a racing wind and then the stentorian voice of thunder which heralded by minutes a final, quenching downpour.In these circumstances, Canterbury fashioned its innings.First on stage, under a painted canopy of blue sky, was Englefield who set the tone for the innings with a calm and authoritative 57. Then came Papps who stayed almost three hours and who made 92 – and who deserved a century – with 16 fours or 62 runs from boundaries.There was Stead who grafted in Papps’ shadow and was deprived, as he was, of a milestone – falling for 49. Then there was Harris who remained in celebratory mood – as a man of such generous temperament and sparkling form should – and who had three sixes among his 46 runs by stumps.There were partnerships of 90 in 82 minutes between Englefield and Papps, which spanned lunch, and of 104 between Papps and Stead, which occupied the second session and took only 88 minutes.Canterbury raced along as if their scoring was being harried by the wind as the clouds had been. Englefield stood giant at the crease, upright and urgent and emphatic. Papps, shorter, stocky but no loss decisive took Englefield’s scoring rate and took it to an even faster level.Stead steadied and Harris rushed towards the early conclusion, eager to see Canterbury through 300.Central’s insistence that Canterbury should bat was based on their impression of the pitch, that emerged from covers with a livid green appearance, and the supposition that it might aid the seamers now if at no other stage of the match.They were mistaken. Pukekura Park pitches are always kind to batsmen and that kindness was enlarged by short boundaries and a lightning outfield. Nor did Central bowl well and there were among their indignities today a pile of 16 no-balls which made them bowl almost three more overs than they should.The fielding was energetic but there is little chance in front of the square boundaries in New Plymouth to stem the flow of batsmen in the form of Canterbury’s four.

Michael Slater has been dropped from Australia’s team to play England in the Fifth Test, which begins at The Oval on Thursday.Or so it seems, after the opening batsman broke ranks today to tell a Sydney radio station that he has been replaced by Justin Langer for the final match of the current series between the teams.”The powers that be have looked for a change and I’ve been replaced by Justin Langer,” Slater informed listeners of radio station 2WS.”It’s great for him. He’s had a disappointing tour and he gets a breath of fresh air at the end of it. But it’s hard to take when you’ve been dropped.”Slater has experienced a mediocre series, amassing 170 runs from seven innings at an average of 24.28. In the last six of those innings, he has produced scores of 25, 4, 15, 12, 21 and 16 and looked uncomfortable against the new ball pairing of Darren Gough and Andy Caddick. After Slater’s up-and-down series against West Indies at home last season, and his failure to reach the half-century mark in any of six innings against India on the subcontinent in March, he has now recorded only one century from his last 36 visits to the crease at Test level.Langer would, nonetheless, be a surprise choice to open the Australians’ batting. The Western Australian left hander has scored a total of just 183 runs on the tour, and has not batted since the Australians played a rain-aborted match against Ireland in Belfast early this month. His entire experience of opening at Test level has been confined to scores of 10 and 1 against West Indies in Perth more than eight years ago.Langer has been a consistent scorer of Test runs in the number three position over recent years, but lost his place in the eleven to fellow Western Australian Damien Martyn as this series commenced. This followed comparatively lean series for him against West Indies (203 runs at an average of 25.37) and India (161 runs at 32.20).The tour selectors, for their part, are understood to be waiting on the fitness of captain Steve Waugh before finalising the changes to their batting line-up. If the skipper, who now rates himself a 50-50 chance of playing in the match, passes a fitness test, then it seems likely that he will be Slater’s replacement and that either Martyn or Simon Katich – neither of whom has significant experience as an opener at first-class level – will partner Matthew Hayden at the top of the order. In that situation, Langer would remain on the sidelines.When Australia’s touring party was named in April, there had been widespread criticism of the selectors’ decision to take just two specialist openers to England. With Michael Hussey, Jamie Cox, Jimmy Maher and Greg Blewett all appearing to offer potential as replacements, it was believed that the Australians would call up a player from county ranks if an alternative opening batsman was needed.