Bridgetown

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 20 000-capacity Sabina Park in Kingston that Inzamam, had he so desired, could have personally shook the hands of all of them without delaying proceedings.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

South Africa lost their way on Friday but batted themselves into an impregnable position on the third day of the third Test against the West Indies in Bridgetown on Saturday. Four wickets left South Africa on 521 for eight, replying to the West Indies’ first-innings total of 296, when stumps were drawn.

Hundreds from Graeme Smith and Abraham de Villiers put South Africa in a strong position in the third Test against West Indies on Friday. De Villiers was undefeated on 122 and Smith was dismissed for 104 to lead South Africa to 253 for one, replying to the West Indies’ first-innings total of 296, when stumps were drawn on the second day.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith is playing his cards close to his chest and shedding no light on the chances of veteran fast-bowling all-rounder Shaun Pollock and left-handed batsman Jacques Rudolph playing in the third Test against West Indies. Smith has admitted that Pollock is short of serious match practice.

For South Africa, in particular, and the West Indies, the third cricket Test, beginning on Thursday, is crucial. A win in the third Test would give the visitors their fourth straight series victory over the West Indies, since South Africa lead the four-Test series 1-0, following their comfortable eight-wicket triumph in the second Test at Port of Spain.

Captain Brian Lara has been omitted from the West Indies team for the first cricket Test against South Africa later this month, the latest development in a four-month feud over sponsorship contracts. The West Indies Cricket Board said Lara gave ”a noncommittal response” to an invitation to make himself available to play in the Test.

Hundreds of delegates to a world racism conference wrapped up six days of meetings with resolutions calling for rights to African citizenship and praise for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s land redistribution programme.