Like few other sports cricket has the ability to make itself look silly. On the very day that Shaun Pollock should have been celebrating a Castle Lager/MTN Test series victory over New Zealand, questions were being asked of him why he had chosen to play it the way he had.With three out of the first four days in the third Test lost entirely to rain at the Wanderers, the fifth day was always going to be a matter of heading towards the inevitable draw. Unless someone grasped the nettle and tried to make something out of nothing.Pollock had two choices when play finally got underway on the last day: he could either declare at some stage, throw the ball in New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming’s court and see what happened; or he could bat it out.He chose the latter, opted for batting practice, allowed Boeta Dippenaar a maiden Test century that will be special to the 23-year-old but tarnished just a little by the circumstances and condemned the day, if not quite the entire game, to a fairly pointless exercise in tedium.South African cricket’s recent background, of course, has to be taken into account. It is less than a year since Hansie Cronje approached Nasser Hussain with a view to making something out of a similar situation at Centurion Park. As Fleming noted, there is still some baggage floating around after that one and the presence of the infamous Marlon Aronstam lurking near the dressing rooms on Saturday could not have helped matters.Yet the way everything panned out tended only to beg a number of questions: what, really, is the point of playing “dead” matches once a rubber has been decided and, as a corollary, what purpose is served by forcing the players to go through a “dead” day?Alternatively, if we accept that for the time being there is no viable technological method of keeping the weather at bay, why don’t Test matches have reserve days like one-day finals? If both Pollock and Fleming though they had another day to juggle with, both might have played it rather differently.In the end, though, South Africa made 261 for three in reply to New Zealand’s 200 all out. Dippenaar got exactly 100 and promptly got out, thereby learning, as he acknowledged afterwards, an important lesson; Jacques Kallis made an unbeaten 79 and might have had his second century had he not dozed off after tea. In the first hour of the final session of the match, Kallis and Daryll Cullinan added nine in 14 overs, a passage of play that served only to underline the meaninglessness of it all.It was all somehow summed up when the match adjudicator, Ted Wood, gave the man of the match award to the groundsman, Chris Scott, and his staff at the end of the game (Makhaya Ntini, deservedly, was the man of the series).For all the platitudes about the integrity of Test cricket, the outcome most strongly suggests that if this form of the game is to survive, then everyone concerned has to rethink it. Despite South Africa’s efficiency and their 2-0 win, the series struggled to come to life and it will leave few abiding memories.Fleming, as coherent as sensible as ever, talked at length afterwards about the options that might have been available, cricket’s need to entertain and the series and tour as a whole. But it all boiled down, essentially, to one word: “frustration”.That’s exactly how everyone at the Wanderers must have felt.

Batting: Based on all matches played up to 09/06/2001Rank Name Total1 P.D.Collingwood 1562 D.P.Fulton 1553 O.A.Shah 1534 S.G.Law 1335 P.C.L.Holloway 1286 G.S.Blewett 1277 M.B.Loye 1238 D.J.Marsh 1219 M.J.Walker 11710 D.S.Lehmann 11611 J.Cox 11312= D.Byas 109S.P.Fleming 10914 R.J.Warren 10515 M.E.Hussey 10316 D.A.Kenway 10117 G.M.Fellows 10018 M.P.Vaughan 9819 A.L.Penberthy 9620 M.L.Love 9421= D.J.Bicknell 90R.R.Montgomerie 9023 M.W.Goodwin 8724= A.Dale 86A.J.Strauss 8626= P.Johnson 84R.C.Irani 8428= K.J.Barnett 83W.P.C.Weston 8330= G.A.Hick 82K.P.Pietersen 8232 S.D.Peters 8033= N.H.Fairbrother 79M.Burns 79J.N.Snape 7936 P.D.Bowler 7837 M.A.Wagh 7738= R.W.T.Key 74B.L.Hutton 7440 A.J.Bichel 7141= G.W.White 70U.Afzaal 7043 M.R.Ramprakash 6844= R.A.Smith 66J.J.B.Lewis 66I.J.Sutcliffe 6647= N.D.Burns 65D.A.Leatherdale 65M.J.Powell 6550 M.W.Alleyne 6451 M.J.Chilton 6352= D.P.Ostler 62M.N.Lathwell 62R.S.C.Martin-Jenkins 62A.J.Swann 6256 N.V.Knight 6157 M.J.Di Venuto 6058= A.D.Brown 59E.T.Smith 59P.J.Franks 59N.C.Johnson 5962= D.R.Law 58W.S.Kendall 5864= W.K.Hegg 57B.F.Smith 57D.C.Nash 57B.Zuiderent 5768 A.D.Mascarenhas 5669= A.Singh 54A.Pratt 54J.W.Cook 5472= M.A.Roseberry 53A.C.Morris 53M.A.Gough 5375= J.M.Dakin 52D.R.Hewson 52J.P.Maher 5278 M.A.Butcher 5179= M.J.Powell 50M.H.Yardy 5081= T.H.C.Hancock 49I.J.Ward 49D.L.Maddy 49N.Peng 4985= M.E.Trescothick 47I.J.Harvey 4787= A.N.Aymes 46G.Chapple 46S.D.Stubbings 46J.D.Middlebrook 4691 P.N.Weekes 4592= N.M.K.Smith 44J.P.Stephenson 44T.R.Ward 44V.J.Wells 44A.D.Shaw 44G.Welch 44D.D.J.Robinson 44A.J.Tudor 44R.S.G.Anderson 44Bowling: Based on all matches played up to 09/06/2001Rank Name Total1 P.C.R.Tufnell 1362 C.E.W.Silverwood 1243 D.M.Cousins 1154 R.S.G.Anderson 1125 A.D.Mullally 1086= V.C.Drakes 107M.J.Saggers 1078 G.Chapple 989 S.D.Udal 9310 J.Lewis 9211= A.C.Morris 89G.J.Smith 8913 M.P.Bicknell 8414 A.J.Bichel 8215 D.E.Malcolm 8016 M.M.Betts 7717 A.Sheriyar 7518 P.S.Jones 7319 J.D.Lewry 6920 P.N.Weekes 6821= M.M.Patel 67A.L.Penberthy 67A.G.Wharf 6724 T.F.Bloomfield 6625= P.J.Martin 64D.R.Brown 6427 S.R.Lampitt 6328= R.S.C.Martin-Jenkins 62R.J.Sidebottom 6230 J.Ormond 6031 J.E.Brinkley 5932 S.J.Harmison 5733 J.M.M.Averis 5634= A.R.C.Fraser 55M.C.Ilott 5536 B.J.Trott 5437= S.L.Watkin 52G.M.Fellows 5239 P.J.Franks 5140 I.J.Harvey 5041= N.M.K.Smith 49A.R.Caddick 4943= I.D.K.Salisbury 48M.Muralitharan 4845 M.V.Fleming 4746= E.S.H.Giddins 45R.L.Johnson 4548= M.W.Alleyne 42G.M.Hamilton 42M.J.G.Davis 4251= R.C.Irani 41N.Killeen 4153= J.I.D.Kerr 40M.P.Vaughan 40R.J.Kirtley 4056= A.P.Cowan 39M.J.Hoggard 39M.A.Sheikh 3959= R.K.Illingworth 37A.D.Mascarenhas 37C.G.Liptrot 3762= R.D.Stemp 36J.N.Snape 36K.P.Dutch 36J.A.R.Blain 36S.J.Cook 3667= M.A.Ealham 34I.D.Hunter 3469 C.D.Crowe 3370 M.A.Gough 3271 A.J.Tudor 3172= K.J.Innes 30A.C.McGarry 3074= P.M.Such 29J.M.Dakin 29N.C.Phillips 29J.F.Brown 29A.Richardson 29D.A.Cosker 2980 V.J.Wells 2881= M.A.Wagh 27G.P.Swann 2783= J.P.Hewitt 25M.P.Smethurst 2585= J.P.Taylor 24T.Lungley 2487= R.D.B.Croft 23U.B.A.Rashid 23M.J.Cawdron 23N.R.C.Dumelow 23D.D.Masters 2392= A.J.Harris 22P.D.Collingwood 2294= T.A.Munton 21J.P.Stephenson 21G.Welch 21U.Afzaal 2198= D.R.Law 20D.L.Maddy 20J.M.Golding 20

Part of New Zealand cricket’s tradition has slipped away with the news that Shell will no longer sponsor our domestic competitions.When a wrinkled one, such as myself, starts to talk about tradition and sponsorship in the same wheeze it might seem time to put on the carpet slippers and trade-in the exercycle.Yet Shell became the most munificent supporters of cricket in New Zealand with a gentlemanly regard for the ethics of the game and the support of those media people who covered cricket on newsprint, radio wave or television screen. Mainly because there was such a strong and sensible cricketing current running through the Shell administrations over the last 25 or so years.One of the first Shell men to work toward NZ cricket sponsorship was Trevor Barber, the former dashing Wellington captain who deserved more than one Test cap. Barber was with Shell in Auckland, a longish putt from the Herald office where I worked, and with a congenial hostelry just across the road. Barber, and perhaps Shell, did not want to belittle the great history of the Plunket Shield, and for a time there was the suggestion the two famous names be tacked together.My comment to Barber was that a hybrid trophy would offer no respect to Lord Plunket, nor sufficient commercial clout to Shell. So the Shell Trophy and later the Shell Cup came into existence. And flourished from Day One.When the sponsorship was first announced at Lancaster Park, David Tudhope, the head serang for Shell, politely side-stepped when I asked the cash amount of the three-year-sponsorship. That was a very sensitive issue, said Tudehope, not least because Shell was in the process of a wage blarney with their drivers, and they might not like the idea of Shell diverting thousands of dollars to cricket sponsorship.Why not ask the drivers what they think about the sponsorship, was my suggestion. Some days later Tudehope phoned back. The drivers thought the cricket sponsorship was a cracker idea, and by the way, it is about $120,000 over the first three years.With that basically sensible, straight-shooting approach the Shell sponsorship became a valuable and perfectly natural part of cricket coverage throughout New Zealand.It helped, of course, that there was a strong strand of cricket support among the Shell top brass. Tom McArthur almost overnight became a permanent and popular part of Auckland cricket. Barber flew the flag bravely, so did Barry Dineen later on, and doubtless there was similarly warm reaction throughout the country.In Auckland, Shell took over the media briefing and launch of each season – perhaps a couple of dozen folk, a few drinks and nibbles, a supply of that invaluable Cricket Almanack, and a generally genial introduction to another summer. Lately, and inevitably, the style of sponsorship changed. Shell began to direct more and more money to wildlife and charitable causes. In fact, with the heavier tread of the sponsors who clambered aboard the international team wagon, Shell must have wondered whether their loyalty was being over-stretched, their long financial support no longer given the strong billing it deserved.So it was probably inevitable that Shell, no longer the centre of cricketing attention, gradually turned its chequebook in other directions. But at least they left New Zealand cricket by the front door, and in style.Cricket will be lucky to gain such a loyal and long-service replacement for Shell. My only hope is that it is a sponsor with a handy headline-sized handle. Many years ago when the New Zealand Motor Corporation sponsored one-day cricket the NZMC principals sometimes wondered why they could not get their sponsorship mentioned in newspaper headlines or in the introductory paragraph of a match report. They were told that if they re-labelled the sponsorship as providing the Austin Shield or the Vauxhall Cup they would get more newspaper mileage. No-one in their right mind would throw the full New Zealand Motor Corporation Knockout into a headline or story. Surely there is a sponsor out there with a neat four or five-letter title so the tradition of the Shell series, Trophy and Cup, can be maintained.

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Wright felt that therewas still scope for improvement in the team’s performance which todaydefeated Zimbabwe for the second straight time to reach the final ofthe triangular series.”We got to pull things up. We gave away 90 runs in the last 10 overswhich were far too many to give away on this track,” said Ganguly,whose 85, a wicket and a catch played a crucial role in India’svictory.”We started well in the morning session but we didn’t bowl well in thelast 10 overs. We could have bowled a lot better with the ball seamingaround on this wicket."On the mini Indian collapse, Ganguly said, "we were 184 for two whenI got out and then we lost four wickets. I would not say they werepoor shots but rather wrong ones. We need to pull ourselves up.”I thought I played a shot which I normally play well against theleft-arm spinners. But yes, we could have applied ourselves better. Iam still not in the best of form, I am not playing at my best. Still,it is better to get some runs. I think I got stuck a bit at the startbut then it was not an easy wicket to bat on.”Coach John Wright was more critical and said the team has an “awful”lot to learn from this win.”Honestly, if you look at the performance and not the result, we needto play lot better than that. I think it was a disappointingperformance. We won a toss which gave us a big advantage and Zimbabwewas a side without its two key players. So we really should havebeaten them easily. We nearly threw it away with some poor shots andalso we gave far too many runs in the field. If we need to becompetitive against the West Indies, I think there is awful lot towork upon. There were far too many extras conceded. Considering thatwe got two wickets in the first over, these guys still got 235 whenbatting conditions were difficult. We got to a winning position andthen we lost Ganguly and a few quick wickets. It just goes to show ifa partnership is broken, you lose a few more quick wickets. We shouldhave a habit of finishing teams off, either in the field or with thebat. Otherwise you would not be consistent in this form of cricket.”The coach said he was happy that Ganguly got runs at last. “I am happyhe got runs and he can now get it off his head and as for Dravid, heplayed just beautifully.”Dravid, who for his 72 unbeaten runs off 64 balls was named man of thematch, said even though he has batted quite well on this tour, hehadn’t played a match-winning innings until now.”When I got in here this time, I was very determined to play that kindof knock. I have been batting well so I decided to play straight andhit it hard. There were a lot of gaps and it is a big ground and youcan find the gaps quite easily and that really helped. When Ajit(Agarkar) came, we still required a run a ball and I said to him thereis no need to panic. If we bat till the end, we will win. I knew bothof us can play shots and we needed just one good over and it came inthe left-arm spinner’s and then Ajit hit a few shots and settled theissue.”

Queenslander Andrew Symonds won the Antipodean head-to-head with Northamptonshire’s Michael Hussey to ease Kent into the quarter-finals of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy with a six wicket win achieved with 13-balls to spare.Symonds, the 26-year-old all-rounder who took over as Kent’s overseas player a fortnight ago following a knee injury to Daryll Cullinan, has yet to finish on the losing side since re-joining the club he served in 1999 and was clearly man-of-the-match in this one-sided encounter.The Birmingham-born, but Australian-raised player returned career-best bowling figures of five for 21 to limit Northamptonshire to a 50-over total of 200 and then hit 39 from 40 balls to steer Kent into the last eight at a canter.After winning the toss on a breezy, overcast morning, Kent’s acting captain Mark Ealham had no hesitation in asking Northamptonshire to bat first.The plan appeared to have backfired when Adrian Rollins and Mal Loye posted 50 for their first wicket inside 12 overs, but Ben Trott’s removal of Rollins to a miscued pull shot and the introduction of Symonds from the Nackington Road end changed to course of the match.Bowling his medium-paced seamers rather than the off-spinners he sent down for Australia in the recent NatWest Trophy international series, Symonds bagged five for six in 26 balls and five for 21 overall to reduce the visitors to 92 for seven.An eighth wicket stand between Paul Taylor, with a career-best 57 in his 200th one-day appearance for the club, and David Ripley (35) added a vital 93, but even at 200 all out Northamptonshire’s score appeared well below par.Kent lost James Hockley and Rob Key early in their reply, but leading scorer David Fulton (63) and Matthew Walker (36) joined forces to post 64 for the third wicket.Both fell in quick succession, but Symonds (39 not out) and his acting captain Ealham (27 not out) saw the hosts home in the best batting conditions of the day.

A fighting century from John Crawley and some adventurous strokeplay from Lancashire’s lower order batsmen blocked Yorkshire’s victory charge on the third day of the Roses match at Headingley.Lancashire closed on 280 for eight with a lead of 122, leaving Yorkshire favourites to clinch their sixth victory of the season and strengthen their position at the top of Division One of the CricInfo Championship table.Resuming their first innings in the morning on 376 for five, Yorkshire added a further 155 before their last wicket fell at 531.Darren Lehmann, whose overnight 222 was already the highest by a Yorkshire batsman at Headingley since Maurice Leyland’s 211, raced on to a record score in a Roses match, 252, before his epic display finally came to an end as he swung at Glen Chapple and was bowled.The Australian had given a flawless exhibition of batting in which he received 288 balls and struck 35 fours and a six.Yorkshire’s innings was far from over when Lehmann departed, however, because Darren Gough continued to blaze a trail, putting on 83 in 24 overs with last man Steven Kirby.Gough was looking set for the second Championship century of his career until he edged Peter Martin to Warren Hegg and was out for 96 from 101 balls with 14 fours and a six, Chapple finishing with a creditable five for 83.Lancashire got off to a shocking start as Michael Atherton edged to slip in Kirby’s first over and Mark Chilton then fell lbw to Gough to make it three for two.Yorkshire’s bowlers kept chipping away at Lancashire but they were defied by captain Crawley who batted superbly for the second time in the match. He never gave a chance as he moved on to his century out of 176 for five but when he had made 113 off 141 balls with 14 fours and a six he cut at Craig White and was caught behind.In the same over, White dismissed Chapple, whose drive was edged to David Byas at first slip, but Chris Schofield laid about him until he was caught at mid-off for 34 and Yorkshire were denied any further successes by Martin and John Wood who slammed the weary bowlers for 47 off the day’s last eight overs, Martin ending unbeaten on 32 and Wood 28.

Graham Thorpe has been ruled out of the Fourth npower Test at Headingley. His hand injury has not recovered sufficiently to allow him to be considered for selection.A bone in Thorpe’s hand was broken by a delivery from Brett Lee during the Second Test at Lord’s.Thorpe ruled himself out of contention today after a fitness test, commenting that the hand “is still very sensitive."

Derek Kenway savaged the Derbyshire bowling to hammer an unbeaten 93 from 87 balls as Hampshire skated to a nine wicket win with more than eight overs to spare at Derby.Kenway and Jason Laney, who ended on 62, shared an unbroken second wicket stand of 144 in 24 overs to take their side past Derbyshire’s 184-5 in the 36th over of a game reduced to 44 overs by rain.It was brilliant batting by Kenway who struck two sixes and 10 fours to turn what promised to be a close contest into a romp in the evening sunshine for the visitors.Laney played a supporting role but also batted fluently after Graeme Welch had started with two maidens to suggest Derbyshire had a chance of defending their total on a grassy pitch.The home sides’ batting had struggled as the ball moved around and although Michael Di Venuto made 42, they were struggling at 100-5 in the 31st over.Shaun Udal bowled superbly to concede only 14 runs from nine overs but Karl Krikken and Luke Sutton added 84 to lift Derbyshire to a competitive score although Kenway turned the game when he came in after Neil Johnson was lbw in the 12th over.Alex Edwards was withdrawn after his four overs cost 29 and one over from Rob Bailey went for 15 as Kenway dispatched the first three balls to the boundary.He survived two stumping chances on 43 and 78, both off left-arm spinner Lian Wharton, but by then, Hampshire were well on course to a victory that takes them a step closer to promotion to Division One.

What do Paul Adams, Roger Telemachus, Justin Ontong and Claude Henderson have in common? They are all graduates of the Western Cape Superjuice Academy.The Academy, an equal venture between Western Province and Boland Cricket and the brainchild of Rembrandt executive Anton Rupert, entered its seventh year with a celebration launch at Newlands on Monday evening.The Academy however faces an uncertain future as pending liquor legislation is taking its toll on sports sponsorship. Added to this, the Superjuice brand has been sold to a different company. Officials and sponsors were however upbeat about the Academy continuing with a new sponsor. An announcement is expected shortly.The new player intake for both Western Province and Boland, together with the highly successful coaching team of Peter Kirsten (WP) and Deon Muller (Boland) were introduced to the various dignatories present.The guest speaker, Western Province captain HD Ackerman praised the work of the Academy while a special presentation was made to former Academy chairperson Henry Paulse.

Carisbrook will become a leader in the New Zealand game with the establishment of a new practice facility this season.An enclosed nets system, based on that used at the Sydney Cricket Ground, will be built and in use within the next two months.A joint venture between Carisbrook’s owners, the Otago Rugby Football Union and Otago Cricket, the nets will feature eight pitches with a fully retractable roof on two at any one time. Each pitch will be four metres wide and will be enclosed by netting four metres high.They will be built on ORFU land adjacent to Carisbrook and will allow teams and individuals to practice while play is in progress on the main ground. They will come into immediate use with Carisbrook hosting three State Championship matches before the New Year, six games in the ICC Under-19 World Cup in January, and the New Zealand/England One-Day International in late-February.The pitches will comprise the same Kakanui soil as used in the Carisbrook block and which has seen groundsman Mark Perram produce some of the best playing sufaces in the country in recent summers.