The Tripura Cricket Association General body meeting has named the coach and manager for the upcoming Ranji season. While Rajat Kanti Sen will be the coach, Arindam Ganguly shall be the manager.

The members passed other resolutions also in the meeting during which a one-minute silence was observed in memory of the departed soul of late Samar Choudhury, Former Minister and Chairman of Tripura Sports Council and M.P.

Other decisions:

Under-22 : Coach – Chira Ranjan Paul, Manager- Dhiraj Debbarma
Under-19 : Coach – Biswajit Paul, Manager – Sri Rajat Debbarma.
Under-16 : Coach – Sri Habul Bhattacharjee, Manager – Sri SubrataDutta Choudhury.
Under- 14 : Coach – Sri Alok Debroy, Manager – Sri Pradibesh Nath.

The Ambassa and Kanchanpur Sub-Division have been granted affiliation.The following grants have been considered:

1. J.C. Memorial (playing 4 Clubs) : Rs 15,000/-
2. Super-Division (other 2 Clubs) : Rs 13,000/-
3. A-Division (8 Clubs) : Rs 11,000/-

Clubs qualifying for the Knockout tournament will be offered Rs 3,000/- in incentive.

The grant for the Sub-Divisions who will be participate in all the State Meet will be Rs 11,000/. In addition the Association will consider granting Rs 8,000/- to each sub-division for construction of concrete pitch for Practice.

Three concrete pitches for practice – two at Stable ground and one in R.C.C.will be prepared at Agartala.

IN MEMORIAM.Sonny Khemraj, father of Richie Khemraj, New Brunswick Cricket Association President and CCA Director, passed away suddenly in his sleep in Toronto. An avid cricketer and supporter, the CCA Board and Executive extends our deepest sympathy to Richie and the extended Khemraj family in this sudden and unexpected loss of their loving head of household.We also extend heartfelt sympathies to Past President James Siew and family on the sudden death of his brother Bal Siew. Bal died in West Palm Beach, Florida after a short illness.The CCA also extends our sympathies to the Family and friends of Franklyn “Dickie” Martin, who also passed away peacefully in his sleep. Dickie was an outstanding cricket aficionado and his incisive commentary, incredible wit and soulful delivery will be sadly missed in the Toronto & District Cricket Association and other Canadian games.Dickie’s funeral will be held next Saturday 20th at 11:00 am at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 1 block south of the Highway 401 on Victoria Park.Those wishing to pay their respects can do so on Friday 19th at the Ogden Funeral Home from 2-4 and from 7-9p.m. Ogden Funeral Home is located at 4164 Sheppard Ave. E. – near Midland Ave.May they rest in peace.As one family counsels, “do not go to bed angry”. In the midst of life, we can easily be called to account.

The junior Pakistan and Sri Lanka sides lock horns againWednesday in the second one-dayer at the Rawalpindi CricketStadium.After a convincing nine-wicket victory in Karachi over thetouring side in the opening match of the five-game series,the Pakistan camp is confident of scoring another win overtheir rivals as both sides prepare for next year’s JuniorWorld Cup in New Zealand.Pakistan coach Haroon Rasheed told Dawn that conditions inRawalpindi were a lot different than what they were inKarachi. “The wicket is grassy and the fast bowlers shouldplay an important part in tomorrow’s game.” He added thatthe dew factor also had to be kept in mind.The home players had nets for more than three hours Tuesdayand Haroon said that all the boys were in good shape. “Wewill go into the match with a positive attitude and we arenot complacent one bit.”The Sri Lankan manager Bandula Warnapura after watching thepitch also held similar views. “If the pitch remains(grassy) as it is by tomorrow, it is going to help theseamers.”He said that his team had lost the first match because fiveof his batsmen were run out. “That we still scored 198 runsshows that our batting is good and I am positive the batsmenwill put up an improved show tomorrow.”Warnapaura also expressed surprise over western mediareports about security concerns in Pakistan in the wake ofthe war in Afghanistan. “I don’t see any security problemshere and would even advise the other foreign teams thatPakistan is a safe place to play cricket.”Earlier, New Zealand had refused to tour Pakistan for a Testseries following the events of September 11 in the UnitedStates. Also, a tour by the West Indies next year is indoubt.

A tired yet raring to go Indian team turned up at the Punjab CricketAssociation Stadium at Mohali for a practice session on the day beforethe first Test. After a session of limbering up exercises, fieldingdrills and a long time in the nets, skipper Sourav Ganguly took timeout to answer questions from the press. Here are the excerpts:On how the team feels playing back-to-back series:When we went to South Africa we knew that we had to come back and playa Test series straight away. I know it is hard but I think we’re upfor it.On the effect of the defeat in South Africa on the team morale:We did not play well in South Africa. We have to admit that they werea better side than us, in the conditions. This is a new series. Wehave a good record at home and need to keep that going.On the controversies over Mike Denness and Virender Sehwag:We were busy with the cricket out there. We were getting to hearvarious things from reports. But at the back of our minds we knew allalong that the Test would take place. I was sure that the controversywould come to an end and we would get on with the game.On the effect the controversy had on the team:It’s very difficult for me to say what effect the whole controversyhad on our cricket. Though things cropped up on the fourth day of thesecond Test, we batted really well on the final day to save the Test.We ended up losing the final match after that. So it’s difficult forme to say how the team was affected.His reaction to the team for the first Test:It’s not true that I said I was unhappy with the team. It’s true thatI said that I was not consulted by the selectors. The rest was addedon and I said no more. There’s no point talking about whether I wantedsomeone else. I’ve been given a team and I’m happy with it.On the wicket at Mohali:There’s a bit of grass covering the wicket, but that’s how Mohali hasalways been. I’m happy with it. The groundsman has prepared a wicketand we’ll play on it.On the need for the captain and selectors to be in constanttouch:As a captain you need be a part of selection policy. And it’simportant to be in touch with the selectors as well. It helpseverybody. The statements written in the press are not required atthis stage. Those words weren’t spoken by me.On the England team:They’ve left a few guys back home but the guys who’ve come have got agreat opportunity. They’ll miss Atherton and Stewart but theyoungsters have done well in Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the last year.Butcher did well against Australia recently too. Ours is a slightlyinexperienced bowling attack and it looks like we’re in for a goodseries.Whether the team would tone down their behaviour:I thought we were on our best behaviour in South Africa. I still thinkthere needs to be some aggression on the field. I know that there hasto be some limit to this. But this is what people come to watch. I asa captain definitely feel that there has to be some aggression on thefield.Indian coach John Wright spoke of the long term need to improve onvarious departments. He had this to say about India’s repeatedfailures abroad despite success at home:JW: There are two areas we need to work on. Shot selection is one. Weneed to be more judicious with shot selection overseas. Some of ourbatsmen can play wonderful cricket here in conditions where the bounceis a little lower. That certainly is an issue. We won againstAustralia because Harbhajan Singh took 32 wickets. We’re verydependent on the quality of our spin bowlers. In Zimbabwe andparticularly South Africa the seam bowlers struggled to take wickets.We tried different combinations but South Africa still made runs inevery innings. In the long term this is something we need to investin. I’m personally pleased for the boys who’ve been selected for theforthcoming Test match ­ it’s an opportunity for them. The guys whoplayed in South Africa ­ Ajit Agarkar, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan -all have potential and I’m sure they’ll be back.

It might only be a speck in the Caribbean covering no more than 600 square kilometres, the population might be less than 160,000 in total and the island may never have produced a Test cricketer, but St Lucia is destined to become the next venue for international cricket.When asked about Test grounds in the West Indies, there is no shortage of historic venues that slip off the tongue. The Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica, are evocative names conjuring up vivid images of the great West Indian quicks pounding away at touring sides, or visiting bowlers struggling to keep Lara, Richards, Greenidge and Haynes in check.However, Caribbean cricket is not so steeped in history that it cannot contemplate change. A new Test venue appeared in 1997 when the picturesque Arnos Vale ground in St. Vincent hosted West Indies against Sri Lanka. A new ground was opened in Grenada in April, 1999, but that has yet to reach Test status.Now St. Lucia’s contribution to Caribbean cricket heritage is scheduled to be completed in March 2002, with two one-day internationals planned in May when the West Indies take on India. Test cricket will, hopefully, follow and then there is the 2007 World Cup when St. Lucia’s new facilities will form an integral part of the programme.This is going to be a state-of-the-art ground, set in the Beausejour Hills of Gros Islet, not far from the tourism centre at Rodney Bay to reflect the easily recognised link between international sport and tourism. But while the St. Lucia National Cricket Ground will provide modern, clean amenities, it will not be a clinical, sanitised venue without atmosphere. It will still have all the colour, noise and passion without which West Indian cricket would be so much poorer.Such facilities do not come cheaply. The project has a budget of EC$35 million, financed primarily through the national lottery on the island with supplementary funding coming from the government of St. Lucia. This is not seen as an outlay but as an investment, bearing in mind the link between tourism and sport mentioned earlier.It is interesting to note that this project was the initiative of the government through the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports. Ernest Hilaire, the permanent secretary, is directly responsible and, with a committee comprising the St. Lucia Tourist Board, organisers of the world-renowned St. Lucia Jazz Festival, and the St. Lucia National Cricket Association, have promised a cricketing weekend in May 2002 unseen before in the West Indies.Add to that the fact that the new ground was promised in the Labour Party manifesto prior to the 1997 elections, and you can see that there are some powerful forces behind its construction. Work commenced in early 2001, after the plans had been formulated in 1998.Of course, it would be the last part in the jigsaw if the island itself could provide an international player to be able to claim that he is playing “at home.” It might be able to do so as far as the women are concerned, for St. Lucia have been women’s champions for the past three years and can boast at least five members of the West Indian women’s team, including the captain.However, there is a distinct hope that a St. Lucian could be representing the West Indies on his home ground during the 2007 World Cup. Darren Sammy will go to the youth world cup in New Zealand in January as a member of the West Indies Under 19 team. It would be just perfect if he comes through to the full side in time for that date in 2007.

Hampshire County Cricket Club is £750 nearer achieving its fund raising goal for the Rose Bowl following a sponsored walk earlier this year by the junior sections of a number of Southern Electric Premier League clubs.

Several hundred youngsters walked around the Rose Bowl Nursery ground, raising funds not only for their own colts sections but also to help Hampshire’s Rose Bowl project.Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove (left) is pictured receiving a cheque for £750 from Neil Owen (Southern Electric Partnership Accounts Manager – right) and Jeff Levick (centre), who organised the walk on the behalf of the league.

Nepal went into their game today with Papua New Guinea knowing they had an outside chance of qualifying for the Super League but in the end they were just short of gaining their goal.In the final analysis the net run rates told the story: Pakistan 0.820, England 0.804, Nepal 0.387. In one of the cruel ironies of the bonus point system, had Nepal not denied England a bonus point in their match, Nepal would have headed off Pakistan for a Super League place. Because the decision on who would have advanced to join England, would have been first based on head-to-head results and Nepal would have qualified by virtue of their win over Pakistan.They would have been disappointed to have have been dismissed by PNG for 177 runs in the 49th over. None of the Nepalese batsmen made a big score, with Yashwant Subedi’s 34 being the highest score, and even then off 73 balls.Captain Binod Kumar Das scored 23 off 21 balls but it was too little too late for Nepal.Christopher Amini was the pick of the PNG bowlers with his three for 31 off his 10 overs.PNG made a good start to their bid to surpass Pakistan’s score with Mahuta Dai scoring 32 off 35 balls and Frank Joseph 15 off 38 as 49 were posted for the first wicket. But as soon as the first wicket fell, there was a steady procession as all 10 wickets fell for 63 runs.Lakpha Lama’s left-arm bowling undid the PNG players as he took four for 14 from 10 overs while Basanta Regmi, also a left-armer, took two for 17 from eight overs. Shakh Gauchan continued the problems created by the left-armers by taking one for 12 from 10 overs.

Somerset skipper Jamie Cox has had a season to remember back home in Tasmania this winter.Jamie has broken the number of appearences for the state of Tasmania, beating the previous record of 139 which was held by David Boon.He has also enjoyed considerable success with the bat to become one of the highest run scorers for a single state, and this winter he has also become the fourth-highest run scorer in Australian Domestic First Class Cricket.Off the field the highlight for Jamie and his fiance Helen has been the birth of their first baby, Lachlan who was born before Christmas.When I contacted Jamie he told me: “Lachlan is wonderful – Helen and I think that we have gotten lucky as he eats and sleeps well and only grizzles when there is obviously something wrong.”Helen was certainly born for motherhood – she has coped superbly. So far so good!”What about Somerset in 2002, I asked. “The new season is obviously full of expectation on the back of last season’s great results. Kevin Shine has told me that all are training hard and are excited about the new challenges ahead. We should be well placed to have another crack at winning trophies, but of course so much depends on the unknown variables such as injuries, English selection and weather etc,” Jamie said.Jamie and Helen get married in early April and then they return to England on April 18th with baby Lachlan, six days ahead of the Cidermen’s first County Championship match against Sussex at Hove.With less than two months to go to the start of the new season, Somerset fans will already be looking forward to welcoming back the captain who led the county to their most successful season ever in 2001. They will be hoping that they will go one stage further in 2002 and win the blue riband of cricketing trophies, the County Championship.

India just couldn’t win.Not only did they lose both Tests in the National Bank Series, they found their over-rate was so slow in the first Test in wind-blown Wellington that they lost 35% of their match fees.If they didn’t feel fleeced over the conditions that developed at the Basin Reserve and Westpac Park, then that fine was probably the final straw.While the wet early summer was clearly an influence on the pitches that were produced, it was the same for both sides.It is all too easy to say the New Zealand’s batsmen know how to handle these pitches.From the observations in the two matches, they are clearly little better at handling them than the Indians were.New Zealand were advantaged by the winning of the toss on both occasions, although it must also be said that the Indian bowlers were not the fearsome unit that the New Zealanders were, especially in Wellington where the pace of Shane Bond was a new experience for the visiting batsmen.It was the ability to utilise the bounce in both Test pitches from tall men like Daryl Tuffey and Jacob Oram that was most significant. That, and their generally relentless accuracy.India’s Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra were finding their lengths by the end of the second Test and a third Test played in more favourable conditions could have seen them as a more fearful prospect.However, the abbreviated nature of a two-Test series satisfies no-one. The players are just getting into their rhythm and it is all over while the public, especially in rain-shortened matches like these were, are left in a blur over what actually happened.While the odd ball may remain in the mind’s eye as something worth recalling from the series, it is batting that fans most like to recall and sadly that wasn’t on offer from either side.Certainly there were glimpses of the supreme technician that Rahul Dravid is, and there was 50 runs of delight from Sachin Tendulkar in Wellington. Mark Richardson’s international season came and went in a flash and he will now be looking to score heavily in the State Championship.The conditions did best suit New Zealand but there were extenuating circumstances. And there will be plenty of former New Zealand players who have been to India who will say that they have also had to play in conditions that were of far more value to the home team than they were to New Zealand, whether deliberate or otherwise.So there should not be any bleeding hearts among New Zealanders about how unsporting it all was. What goes around comes around, and always has done in sport.What was encouraging from New Zealand’s point of view was that the side was capable of taking advantage of the position it found itself in, this despite a lack of matchplay and all the upset that had occurred with the players’ strike.Oram emerged as a potential all-rounder replacement for Chris Cairns, whenever his career reaches its end. It will be interesting to follow his development in the tougher conditions coming up in New Zealand’s future Test programme.Robbie Hart confirmed that he was a fine choice as a wicket-keeping replacement for Adam Parore and his catch to dismiss Sourav Ganguly in Hamilton in India’s second innings was one to store on video tape and recall many times over.Mind you India could claim the same of their 17-year-old star Parthiv Patel, whose effort to remove Nathan Astle could have been a match-winner with a little more luck going India’s way.What was of concern was the lack of work for left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori. While the New Zealand camp were happy with the victories, there must be concern that Vettori has been increasingly shut out of Test matches in this country, and with twin series coming up in Sri Lanka and India, that is not good.Taking into account the lack of bowling Vettori had on the fiery portable pitches in Christchurch and Auckland last summer, and no bowling in two Tests this year, that averages 21.14 overs per Test, 10 overs in one innings and 11 in the other.Take out the 49 overs he bowled on the slow dry wicket in the second Test against England, and the situation is much worse.Spin bowlers need to bowl and Vettori needs to be bowling more.While it is easy to say he will get plenty of bowling on the subcontinent coming up, he still needs to be getting the work, and with all the one-day cricket coming up it is not the sort of diet a spin bowler would relish.New Zealand still has problems, certainly off the field, if less so on, with the poor drainage of the Basin Reserve and Westpac Park. It is no longer acceptable to have sunny days and no cricket because the outfield is damp.Things are on the improve and these problems are noted, but there are, if you’ll pardon the pun, no grounds for complacency.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden said there was no truth in the rumour that the third National Bank Test match at Eden Park between New Zealand and England was to be transferred to Hamilton.The rumour has surfaced over the past few days.Snedden said he was concerned with the portable pitch used for the recent Auckland-Canterbury State Championship match at Eden Park.He said he had stipulated at the start of the summer that if a portable pitch was to be used for the England Test it had to be tested during a State Championship game on Eden Park No 1.The pitch for the Auckland-Canterbury game had been “fairly abysmal,” he said and after receiving the pitch reports he had put WestpacTrust Park in Hamilton on stand-by for the Test match, in case there were problems.He expressed his concerns to the Eden Park board and they, with NZC and Auckland Cricket, ensured that intensive preparation was put into the pitch preparation for the One-Day International played last weekend.The pitch for the ODI was a different portable to that used for the Auckland-Canterbury game. There are three pitches available for use as portable pitches.However, he was delighted with the way the pitch came through for the ODI and Eden Park would be the venue for the third Test.