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Hashan Tillakaratne, 33, has been recalled into a 22-man Sri Lankan nationaltraining squad for the forthcoming One-International Triangular tournamentagainst India and New Zealand in July and the three-match Test seriesagainst India in August.The newly appointed selection committee added seven names to the 15-mansquad that participated in Sharjah last month during a long discussion lastnight. The other players added to the squad were Aravinda de Silva, SureshPerera, Dulip Liyanage, and three left arm spinners: Dinuk Hettiarachchi,Niroshan Bandaratillake, and Sanjeewa Weerakoon.The Chairman of the five-man Selection Committee, Tikiri Banda Kehelgamuwa,said that he expected that the 15-man one-day squad to form the rump of thesquad for the triangular series. Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratneand the other five players are in contention for the Indian Test series.Nevertheless, Kehegamuwa, refused to rule out the possibility of changes,handing out an olive branch to members of the A team, who will take onPakistan A in a three-Test/ODI series in June.Hashan Tillakaratne was dropped from both the one-day and Test nationalsquads after the 1999 World Cup in England, when the selectors embarked upona youth policy. The selectors reiterated their commitment towards youthagain this week, but the could not ignore Tillakaratne, who impressedthroughout the domestic season, scoring three centuries and 665 runs at anaverage of 110.It is, however, unlikely that both Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratnewill both find a place in the final Test team.Sanjeewa Weerakoon, 21, an accurate left arm spinner, is the only player tohave not played a Test or ODI for Sri Lanka in the 22-man squad. He gets hischance after topping the bowling averages this year, having taken 79 wicketsfor Burgher Recreation Club, including three ten-wicket match hauls. He willface tough competition, however, for a place, with both Hettiarachchi andBanadaratillake in the squad too.The two fast bowlers, Dulip Liyanage and Suresh Perera, are recalledafter a period of absence precipitated through injury. Liyanage, a sharpoperator who swings the ball away from the right handers, suffered an ankleinjury after playing in eight Test matches in the mid 1990’s, but was backto his best this year, taking 66 wickets in 11 games.Suresh Perera suffered from a stress fracture of his back after impressingon his debut against England at the Oval in 1998 and has struggled to regainhis form and confidence since. He is though valued highly by the management,despite only taking 19 wickets this season.Both players are useful with the bat – Liyange averaged 22 this season forColts CC and Perera averaged 31 for the Sinhalese Sports Club – and wouldstrengthen the lower order, making them ideal candidates for the one-dayside.The squad have already commenced training in Colombo.

The West Indies are three insignificant wickets away from a resounding victory in the fifth and final Cable & Wireless Test that would secure the series and administer a welcome, overdue dose of self-confidence to Carl Hooper and his team.India, required to score an unprecedented 408 for a rare overseas triumph, were undermined yesterday by the spirited efforts of the second string West Indian fast bowlers, Pedro Collins and Adam Sanford.Only fading light that ended play four overs early and obliged Hooper to operate with the occasional spinners, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, for the last seven overs prevented the Indians the ignominy of defeat in four days.They resume this morning 237 for seven, 171 away from a target never before achieved to win a Test.Yet, for a couple of hours in the middle session, Sachin Tendulkar batted with an authority that silenced the few thousand expectant West Indians scattered around Sabina Park and suggested the little maestro could knock off the runs all on his own.But Collins, who was having the best day of his 11 Tests, has had the measure of the most complete batsman of his time throughout the series, twice removing him for "ducks", second ball in the second Test and first in the third.The tireless left-armer intervened again with an even more timely strike.By tea, Tendulkar was 82, dominating a partnership with captain Sourav Ganguly then worth 89 and joining the elite with nine other great batsmen who have reached 8 000 runs in Test cricket, aged 29 and in his 96th match.He stroked Collins’ first ball after the interval nonchalantly to the third man boundary to add to the 12 fours he accumulated before the interval, mostly with savage square-cuts and one vicious, spine-tingling cover-drive off Merv Dillon.Collins’ sixth, delivered from round the wicket, sent him back in hasty defence, kept lower than he anticipated and brushed the under edge of his bat before crashing into the middle and off-stumps.The bowler and his teammates broke into leaping, spontaneous jubilation, the previously muted stands instantly erupted into cheering, whistle-blowing celebration and the speakers in the Red Stripe Mound boomed out the appropriate music.Everyone knew it basically confirmed the outcome that was in little realistic doubt once the West Indies extended their lead to over 400 in the morning, with Collins to the fore with his highest Test score of 24.Only one team has ever totalled over 400 to win a Test match – ironically India’s 406 for four over the West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1976 – and India were highly unlikely to repeat the success of Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath and others against a threadbare West Indies spin attack then.But the sight of Tendulkar disappearing into the players’ area beneath the George Headley Stand for the last time of the series was a huge relief.The job was not done when he left – nor before he came in – and Collins and Adam Sanford, equally enthusiastic, ensured that no one else got in their way.With Merv Dillon, the spearhead of the attack, possibly exhausted after his first innings effort of five wickets and patently listless, and Cameron Cuffy steady but no more, it was left to Collins and Sanford to fill the breach.Collins took care of the openers and Sanford despatched Rahul Dravid, Ganguly and V.V.S.Laxman, India’s three most consistent batsmen in the series.As he so frequently does, Collins struck as soon as he replaced Cuffy after nine overs.Wasim Jaffer stabbed his third ball firmly, but straight into the lap of Wavell Hinds at short-leg who safely pouched the catch in precisely the same place where he has taken so many since coming into the team.In his next over, Jaffer’s little partner, Shiv Sunder Das, went hesitantly forward and was ruled lbw by umpire Russell Tiffin. Since Collins was over the wicket, it was a marginal decision and the TV tramlines did indicate the ball pitched an inch or two wide of leg-stump.By lunch, Dravid had established India’s plan with a succession of positive strokes while Tendulkar bided his time.He was looming as a definite threat when Sanford, in his best spell of the series, pinned him on the backfoot after an hour and 20 minutes for 30 and Tiffin raised the finger again for the lbw decision.For the next hour-and-a-half, Tendulkar took centre stage with the kind of performance of which only the genuine stars are capable.In that time, he was beaten twice outside off-stump, once by Dillon and once by Hooper’s straight ball, and offered one edged shot, a slash over the leaping Brian Lara at first slip off the persevering Collins.Otherwise, everything came from the middle of a broad bat. A hundred seemed inevitable when Collins shocked him.There the resistance ended.Sanford, with his bounding approach and strong action, rushes off the pitch at surprising pace and gains steep bounce. Both attributes – and a little verbal confrontation with Ganguly – set up his two wickets. Late on the shot, Ganguly hooked him straight to Sarwan at square-leg six runs afterTendulkar’s departure.Laxman was undone mainly by the bounce, getting his shot high on the bat high to mid-wicket where Dillon stepped back to hold an excellent, two-handed catch above his head.Cuffy showed that whatever Dillon could do he could do just as well with a tumbling take at mid-on that intercepted Harbhajan Singh’s cross-batted heave that gave Gayle a bonus wicket.Had Hooper not floored Ajay Ratra’s deflection off Sanford, everyone might have had today off. But it should not be delayed long.Tendulkar’s wicket capped a dream day for Collins.A novice No. 9 right-handed batsman whose highest Test score was 13, he had already made a significant contribution by remaining through the last hour and 25 minutes the previous afternoon with Shivnarine Chanderpaul to halt a spirited Indian comeback in a stand of 43.With a mixture of authentic strokes and tailender’s heaves, Collins moved from four to 24 after Chanderpaul drove a return catch to Zaheer Khan after adding only five to his overnight 54.They were enough to send the lead above the psychologically satisfying 400. Then he went to work with the ball.

The new Somerset `Hero of the Week’ is Matthew Wood, who scored a century in each innings of the championship match against Surrey at the County Ground last week. Congratulations to Matt on scoring his two hundreds, and also on being named as the new hero.Chief executive Peter Anderson and coach Kevin Shine were unanimous about their choice of the new hero.Mr Anderson told me: "It has to be Matthew Wood as the new hero. It’s so nice to see a young player come through the ranks and grab his chance when it comes along at first class level."Kevin Shine told me: "After his two hundreds against Surrey last week, there can only be one choice for the new hero, and that is Matthew Wood. He is a very talented young player."Matthew, who hails from Exmouth in Devon, has been on the Somerset scene for a number of years, and made his second eleven debut when he was just sixteen. He made his first team debut in June 2001 against Yorkshire at Bath scoring 71 in his first innings for the county.Later in 2001 Matthew scored his maiden first class century when he made 122 against Northamptonshire at Taunton.This season Matt made a quiet start, but over the last few innings has looked better and better each time that he has gone out to bat. He has also become a regular member of the one day side, where he has made some very useful contributions.I caught up with Matt just before he set off on the long journey to Scarborough, when he gave me the following answers to the Thomas and George’s hero questions.Q1 What sports do you enjoy, apart from cricket?
A I enjoy playing both golf and football. I have a golf handicap of sixteen, which is about right, I’m not a bandit like Blackie and Bully! I play football, but because I have been out to Australia for the last couple of winters I don’t have a regular team. I support Liverpool.Q2 Who was your idol when you were young?
A Locally my hero was Nick Folland who played for Somerset but also played for Exmouth where my Dad played. He influenced me a lot. Nationally I suppose my idols were Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.Q3 Who is your favourite pop star or band?
A I don’t really have a favourite.Q4 What do you do in your spare time?
A I relax in any spare time that I get. I enjoy going out with my friends, playing golf, and watching all sports.Q5 Where did you go to school, and when did you start to play cricket?
A I went to school at St Joseph’s Primary in Exmouth and then onto Exmouth Community College. I started to play cricket when I was about six years old, with my Dad, who played for Exmouth at that time. He is still very involved with the club.Q6 What is your favourite food?
A I enjoy eating anything apart from Chinese.Q7 How much training do you do every week, are there any special exercises?
A Off season I train nearly every day, but during the season I train on days that we are not playing.Q8 What has been your most memorable match for Somerset?
A After my two hundreds last week’s against Surrey last week, that has to be my most memorable match for Somerset, so far!Q9 Apart from the County Ground at Taunton, which is your favourite cricket ground and why?
A I don’t really have another favourite ground, apart from here at Taunton, where I have scored all three of my first class centuries.Q10 What are your cricketing ambitions?
A My cricketing ambition is to play cricket at the highest level that I possibly can.Thank you very much Matt for the answers to our questions.I’m sure that everybody who has watched your career develop over the years is delighted at your success and offer their congratulations to you on scoring two centuries against Surrey.

The semi-final between South Africa and India re-affirmed theglorious uncertainty of one-day cricket yet again. It was athoroughly incompetent batting display from the South Africans inthe end overs that helped India recover and win a game which atone point seemed to have slipped out of their grasp.

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The turning point of the game came when Herschelle Gibbs wasforced to retire with cramps in both hands. At that stage, Gibbsand Jacques Kallis seemed to have batted India out of the gamewith their 178-run second wicket partnership. But Gibbs’sunfortunate departure presented India with the slightest ofopportunity and all credit to them, for they seized it with bothhands. The spinners – Harbhajan Singh and later Virender Sehwag -bowled a tight line and stifled the South African batsmen whilethe fielders led by Yuvraj Singh pulled off some fine catches asIndia willed themselves back into the game.Evidently, South Africa had their chances but the lack ofimagination and daring on the part of their batsmen saw Indiatightening the screws on the opposition with every passing over.I felt that Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener played as ifwinning the game never really mattered to them. Kallis afterhaving played himself in during the partnership with Gibbs wasideally suited to take over the role of the senior partner butstrangely he seemed reluctant to force the pace. Klusener’sinability to play slower bowlers, meanwhile, meant that therewere no breathtaking assaults from his end either as the SouthAfrican challenge met with a tame end.After this performance, I wouldn’t be surprised if Klusener isaxed on his return. South African cricket will indeed have totake some tough decisions, even if that means showing the door tosome of the established players for having let the team down.I also wonder about whether there was any communication betweenSouth African skipper Shaun Pollock and Kallis and Klusener. Thethoughts arise because it was befuddling to see a professionalside like South Africa play so poorly, and that too in the secondbiggest one-day tournament.Earlier, the Indian batting failed to take advantage of ablistering start. When Sehwag was around, flaying the SouthAfrican bowling, I had hoped that the Indians would end up with ascore in excess of 300.

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All credit, though, should be given to South African bowlers andtheir breathtaking fielding for restricting India to what was atbest a competitive total. India wouldn’t have got to even thatscore if Rahul Dravid and the very impressive Yuvraj Singh hadnot come up with vital knocks which ensured that India were givena fighting chance of winning the game.I am glad that the boys, then, showed the spunk required of themin the evening and qualified for the big final. With either SriLanka or Australia, both strong batting teams, destined to betheir next opponent, it is time the think-tank thought aboutstrengthening our bowling line-up. I for one would like to seeAjit Agarkar replace Kumble in the bowling line up.If that happens it would only strengthen a team that now seemscapable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the best teams inthe world. With the likes of Sehwag, Yuvraj and Mohammad Kaif allplaying crucial roles in recent Indian wins, Sourav Ganguly’s menhave indeed grown into a formidable force in one-day cricket.The success of these youngsters has also meant that India are inthe finals despite their premier batsman Sachin Tendulkar havinga poor tournament, according to his standards. The big final,though, might be the setting that will inspire Tendulkar intogiving his best. Winning it is not going to be easy, but itsurely is not impossible and I wish the boys all the very bestbefore the all-important encounter.

A total of nearly 200 school children aged between 7 and 10 from the Volksschule Markomannenstrasse 9, in Vienna’s 22nd district, had an introduction to cricket on 4th-5th December, with eight classes seeing promotional videos about the sport, prior to then having a cricket session in the school gym, with Siva Nadarajah and Pascal Cyniburk, himself a product of Concordia CC’s Youth Development Programme, assisting the European Development Programme’s Dave Gelling, who whilst no stranger to Austrian Cricket, was making his first trip under the Regional Coaching Initiative.Amongst the presentations, children were shown the 2001 Confetti Show programme on Cricket – which was shot at Seebarn, and in which the children taking part in Concordia CC’s Youth Development Programme presented cricket to Austria’s younger television viewers, as part of state broadcaster ORF’s children’s programming (Confetti TV).The children were also able to try out Kwik Cricket, with sets being presented to the school, so the hope is that cricket will soon be played on a regular basis at the school which overlooks Concordia’s ground, with the previously "mysterious" activities at the ground, visible from the school’s classrooms being less strange. Hopefully some of the children will take up cricket outside of school and will establish themselves for club and country!The Austrian Cricket Association would like to thank the European Development Programme for their assistance in this project, especially at such short notice, and to thank Dave Gelling in particular, whose next project will be an introductory coaching course in Vienna this weekend.

Nashua WP all-rounder Neil Johnson will miss WP’s opening Supersport Series match against Free State starting in Bloemfontein on Friday. Johnson plays his last county match for Hampshire on Saturday before returning to Cape Town.The WP selectors have included two spinners, Claude Henderson ans Paul Adams in their 13 man squad. Lloyd Ferreira returns to the four day game after missing last season’s Supersport Series due to work commitments. SA under 19 player Rory Kleinveldt could earn his first senior cap while Roger Telemachus is fully fit. The full squad is;NASHUA WESTERN PROVINCEVS FREE STATE EAGLESSUPERSPORT SERIESGoodyear Park20,21,22,23 September 20021)Gary Kirsten2)Andrew Puttick3)Ashwell Prince4)Hylton Ackerman (C )5)Lloyd Ferreira6)Renier Munnik7)Thami Tsolekile8)Claude Henderson9)Paul Adams10)Roger Telemachus11)Charl Willoughby12)Quinton Friend13)Rory KleinveldtCricket Manager:Peter Kirsten

The England selectors’ plans for the coming three-Test series against Sri Lanka have been disrupted after wicket-keeper James Foster sustained a broken arm in practice.Foster was one of 11 players to win a central contract with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) last month, and would therefore have been confident of selection for the first Test, which starts at Lord’s on May 16th. He sustained the injury while batting in the nets with his Essex colleagues at his home ground of Chelmsford. He now appears certain to miss the first two Tests of the series. The second Test at Edgbaston starts on May 30th.”He has undergone an x-ray and the arm has been put in plaster and he is expected to be out for four weeks,” said ECB spokesman Andrew Walpole.Foster, 22, made his international debut for England on the tour of India last year and kept wicket throughout the recent Test series in New Zealand.His injury could pave the way for a return to the senior wicket-keeping role for Test veteran Alec Stewart, although Chris Read of Nottinghamshire and Lancashire’s Warren Hegg, who toured with England over the winter, are also likely to be contenders. However Stewart’s excellent batting form (he scored 99 and 96 in his first two Championship innings for Surrey) could well present a compelling case for a recall.Stewart, now 39, last played for England against Australia at The Oval last August. His decision to miss the tour of India (and consequential non-selection for New Zealand) led to speculation that his 115-Test career could be over. However he has made clear his intention to reclaim his place, and shown the form to demand consideration.

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An ideal opportunity to entertain your clients at the longest runningCricket Festival with its own unique atmosphere. The corporate packagewhich includes ticket, morning coffee, lunch and tea starts at £70 plusVAT per head.To enjoy this special experience please contact Gloucestershire CountyCricket Club on 01242 514420.

Somerset chief executive Peter Anderson has written to all 7000 of the club’s members `to apologise for the poor display by our players this season.’In the letter that dropped onto every members doorstep over the weekend the Somerset boss says that despite the C and G Final appearance at Lord’s `too many of our performances seemed to lack enthusiasm, urgency, and the requisite application expected of professional players.’Mr Anderson refers to the meeting that Cricket Chairman Vic Marks is going to have with the coaches and senior staff to `assess what went wrong and what is needed to rectify the situation’ and goes onto say that the club are making financial provision to sign three new players including an additional overseas player.The Somerset chief promises ` each and every coach and player will be interviewed and left in no uncertain terms what is expected of them in 2003. For most of them the message is quite simpleyou got us down, you get us up.’However Mr Anderson reassures the supporters when he says `The ground, facilties, youth development, training and finacial structure are the envy of many’ and concludes by saying `What has happened has depressed us all but it is not the end of the world; nor is it the end of Somerset County Cricket Club.Certainly if the players can carry on with the kind of spirit and application that they demonstrated in the last NUL game against Durham Dynamos they will be a force to be reckoned with in 2003 and will be promotion contenders in division two.

Sussex are in a strong position going into the final day of their Cricinfo Championship match against Nottinghamshire after establishing a lead of more than 300 at Hove yesterday.After bowling out Notts for 332 to take a first innings lead of 72, Michael Yardy and Richard Montgomerie both made half-centuries as Sussex closed on 237-5, a lead of 309.Yardy’s 68 was his maiden first-class half-century and the left-hander certainly looked the part, playing some superb off side shots as he shared a second-wicket stand of 128 in 28 overs with Montgomerie.Yardy was eventually caught behind off Greg Blewett, but Montgomerie went on to make 66 before he became the second of three wickets for South African Greg Smith who was again the pick of the Notts’ attack.Smith had earlier claimed the wicket of Murray Goodwin and in an impressive second spell he also removed Will House for a duck as Sussex lost three middle-order wickets in the space of five overs.Robin Martin-Jenkins and Umer Rashid re-asserted Sussex supremacy and will be there this morning before the declaration.Earlier Jason Lewry must have impressed watching chairman of selectors David Graveney by taking 5-95 as the last six Notts wickets fell for 118 in the morning session.Kevin Pietersen and Read both made half-centuries and six Notts batsmen got past 29. But no one went on to score the big innings which might have made their last-day run chase less challenging.