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Struggling South Africa fast bowler Makhaya Ntini is battling to save his Caribbean World Cup dream. The 29-year-old was dropped from the team for the crucial Super Eights match against England in Bridgetown on Tuesday despite a Kensington Oval pitch having both pace and bounce.
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Michael Vaughan took the acclaim when he led England to their 2005 Ashes triumph. Now the same fans greet his name with boos. England’s World Cup elimination on Tuesday brought into focus the woeful batting form of skipper Vaughan, who struggled through the premier limited-overs event and compiled just 130 runs in nine innings.
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South Africa outclassed England to take their place in the World Cup semifinals after a nine-wicket victory on Tuesday. The defeat ended England’s hopes of making the cut and South Africa join Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the semifinals.
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Hundreds of England’s Barmy Army fan club added more life to the highly charged atmosphere at the Kensington Oval for Tuesday’s World Cup clash with South Africa. England need a win to sneak into the last four, while a victory for South Africa would put the Proteas into the semifinals to join Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
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South Africa cricket captain Graeme Smith on Monday played down reports of a heavy drinking session by some of his players on the night following their World Cup defeat against New Zealand. ”I have no issues with some guys going out for a drink and blowing off steam. It’s a long tournament,” said Smith.
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Struggling through in the Super Eights, South Africa and England meet at the Kensington Oval on Tuesday chasing the last place in the semifinals. Tuesday’s game is South Africa’s last in the Super Eights, while England must still play the West Indies in the final match before the semifinals.
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The Irish are famed around the world for knowing how to throw a party. Now Ireland’s cricketers are not just joining world cricket’s biggest club, they’re winning matches and lots of new friends. Ireland’s comfortable 74-run defeat of Bangladesh on Sunday in the Super Eights is the amateur side’s second victory at the World Cup.
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Australia qualified for the semifinals of the World Cup after a crushing nine-wicket victory over Ireland in their Super Eights game on Friday. Pace bowlers Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait skittled Ireland out for 91 and the World Cup holders then knocked off the total inside 13 overs with the loss of just one wicket.
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Sri Lanka took over as the leading contender for Australia’s World Cup title by beating New Zealand by six wickets on Thursday. Despite a century by Scott Styris, New Zealand lumbered to only 219 for seven at Grenada and the Sri Lankans ambled to the target with almost five overs to spare.
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Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar conceded his team’s World Cup semifinal hopes are doomed after a four-wicket defeat against England in the Super Eights match in Bridgetown. ”Had we won today we’d be in the running for a semifinal place, but our chances are slim now,” said Bashar.
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England staggered to a World Cup victory over Bangladesh on Wednesday, struggling to chase down a modest target of 144 to keep alive its hopes of a semifinal spot. After bowling admirably to dismiss the dangerous Bangladesh side to 143, England’s top six batsmen failed to fire.
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The semifinals for the Cricket World Cup could effectively be decided two weeks ahead of schedule and some fans are trying to sell tickets they no longer want. This isn’t how the organisers of the first World Cup in the Caribbean saw it happening. The Super Eights were expected to be a close-run competition to decide the final four teams.
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Irate West Indies fans called for captain Brian Lara to be sacked following the team’s third consecutive defeat in the Super Eights of the World Cup on Sunday. After Sri Lanka trounced the home team by 113 runs in Guyana, many fans drowned their sorrows with a traditional glass of rum.
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The World Cup is only halfway through, yet the South Africans have won a title, of sorts. Because April 1 is the cut-off point for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) limited-overs championship, based on results and ranking points over a year, South Africa finished ahead of Australia by the slimmest of margins.
South Africa will have an extra incentive to beat Sri Lanka in their World Cup match on Wednesday as victory would allow them to hold on to their number one status and land them a  000 windfall. South Africa would have to secure the top spot in the International Cricket Council one-day rankings by April 1 to receive the cash boost.
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When Inzamam-ul-Haq bid a tearful farewell to international one-day cricket, the crowd rose to acclaim the great Pakistani. The problem was that there were so few people inside the 20Â 000-capacity Sabina Park in Kingston that Inzamam, had he so desired, could have personally shook the hands of all of them without delaying proceedings.
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When Bob Woolmer was appointed Pakistan coach in 2004 he entered a part of the world where only religion exceeds the importance of cricket. In the sub continent where the annual per capita income amounts to just , cricket offers one of the few distractions from the daily grind of surviving on or below the breadline.
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Pakistan’s World Cup cricketers provided DNA samples on Friday as Jamaican police probed the murder of their coach Bob Woolmer and awaited results of tests on his body for more clues on how he died. The chairperson of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Nasim Ashraf, stressed no member of the Pakistan team was suspected by police of Woolmer’s murder on Sunday.
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Sri Lanka virtually guaranteed themselves a place in the World Cup Super Eights with a 198-run thrashing of Bangladesh in their second group-B game on Wednesday. Sanath Jayasuriya smashed a quickfire century to help Sri Lanka post a challenging 318-5 against Bangladesh.
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Pakistan rallied around Inzamam-ul-Haq on Wednesday to ensure his last match was a proper tribute for late coach Bob Woolmer and not another debacle. Imran Nazir clobbered 160 and Inzamam added 37 from 32 balls in Pakistan’s rain-interrupted, 93-run World Cup win over Zimbabwe on Wednesday.
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Bob Woolmer believes South Africa have the balance and the power to emerge World Cup winners. The Pakistan coach believes that if Graeme Smith’s men, now the top-ranked side in the world, can harness patience to their impressive all-round game, they could emerge champions.
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Bangladesh pulled off a major shock on Tuesday when they defeated New Zealand by two wickets in a World Cup warm-up match. Pace bowler Mashrafe Mortaza proved to be the hero with bat and ball. After taking 4-44 to limit the Black Caps to 224 all out, he then smashed two successive sixes off the hapless James Franklin to secure victory in the 49th over.
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Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle bludgeoned Kenya’s bowling attack on Monday, hoping it will be a sample for long-waiting West Indies fans of what to expect at the World Cup. The World Cup programme kicked off with four warm-up matches, bringing cricket’s marquee limited-overs tournament to the Caribbean for the first time.
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/ 20 February 2007
Brothers Andy and Grant Flower are still not interested in returning to the Zimbabwe cricket team as long as the present administration remains. The pair was speaking on Monday after playing for the World XI against the West Indies All Stars as part of the reopening of Kensington Oval on Saturday.
Zimbabwe manager Andy Pycroft is confident the cricket team will put behind it the politics and infighting at home and play well in the West Indies. Zimbabwe will meet West Indies in seven one-day internationals starting on April 29 in Antigua. The tour originally included two Tests, but the Zimbabwe government withdrew the team from all Tests this year.
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/ 4 February 2006
Brian Lara apologised over the public address system at the Carlton Club on Friday for his reaction to a disputed dismissal the day before in a Caribbean cricket championship match. Lara, who scored 54 on the first day of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carib Beer Cup match with Barbados, angrily slapped a plastic chair with his bat as he made his way into the pavilion after being given out.
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/ 17 December 2005
The Sandy Lane resort and golf course will host the World Cup of golf next December. Twenty-five teams, including the top three teams from each of the World Cup qualifying matches in Mexico and Asia, will compete in the tournament from December 4 to 10.
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/ 18 October 2005
West Indies coach Bennett King expressed surprising confidence on Monday ahead of his squad’s tour of Australia, but said beating the world’s number-one cricket team on its home turf won’t be easy. ”The Australians are very good and we are going into their den. We just have to go there and tame them,” King said.
Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer blasted his batsmen on Sunday after the West Indies sealed a convincing 276-run victory with more than a day to spare, calling the team’s first innings performance ”spineless”. Woolmer said the catalyst for the defeat was Pakistan being bowled out for 144 in their first innings.
Fast-bowler Charl Langeveldt claimed three wickets in as many balls in the final over on Wednesday and bowled South Africa to a one-run victory over the West Indies in the third one-day cricket international at Kensington Oval. The victory gave South Africa an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
South Africa are looking to close out their best-of-five one-day international series against West Indies with a victory in the third match on Wednesday. The South Africans lead the best-of-five series 2-0, after winning the first two matches at Kingston by the identical margin of eight wickets on Saturday and Sunday.
Fast bowler Andre Nel blasted through the West Indies lineup with a career-best 6-32 to help South Africa win by an innings and 86 runs with a day to spare in the third Test on Sunday. South Africa’s biggest win over the West Indies also gave it the series, with a 2-0 unassailable lead in the four-Test series.