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Craig McMillan has been named in the New Zealand team to play the first Test against Australia at Brisbane on Thursday. Hamish Marshall, who scored a half-century against Bangladesh recently, missed out. Also out of the XI was James Franklin, who was laid low by a groin strain.”There were a couple of tough ones, mostly based around balance, the sort of strategy we want to take into the game, and experience,” said John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach. “Craig McMillan’s selection gives us greater experience and someone who is battle hardened for a Test match of such magnitude. Hamish had just one Test innings in Bangladesh and, while he scored 50, was a bit out of touch in the one-day series. But what it really came down to was the small mental things – the fact that Craig has been there and done that. And the added bonus of a few overs may help.”Bracewell also expressed disappointment at losing Franklin, and explained that the need for swing influenced selection. “We want to have at least one swing bowler in the match as Brisbane is one of the few places in Australia where you get the opportunity to swing the ball. It will be about taking the small windows the new ball gives us – the opportunity to pick up a couple of wickets with a swinging ball against a team that goes hard at the bowling.”Bracewell expected conditions to suit the quicker bowlers. “We are expecting the ball to swing and after our initial look at the wicket it looks dry and is already showing cracks along the length of the pitch which indicates that it might take turn towards the end of the match. The ground staff have rolled a lot of grass clippings into the wicket trying to keep the moisture levels up.”New Zealand 1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Mark Richardson, 3 Mathew Sinclair, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Nathan Astle, 6 Craig McMillan, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Brendon McCullum (wk), 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Chris Martin

The England & Wales Cricket Board is trying to persuade Australia to play three ODIs in England next summer as it attempts to recoup the financial losses stemming from the decision to boycott Zimbabwe during the World Cup.The ECB is facing a shortfall of around £2.5million as a result of the stay-away, and three matches against the Aussies could generate up to £1million. The aim would be to play them ahead of the ICC Champions’ Trophy, which is being held in England in September 2004, and the hope is that Australia will see them as a good way of warming up for that tournament, which will involve all the Test-playing nations.While the accountants will be delighted with the plan, England’s cricketers might be less enthusiastic. They are already due to play seven Tests and a ten-match triangular series against New Zealand and West Indies, as well as the ICC Champions’ Trophy. Another three games crammed in to the schedule will place further strain on them at a time when the burdens of nonstop cricket are a major concern among players.The other question is whether the public will continue to flock to matches, or whether the sheer quantity of games will lead to a decline in interest. The appetite for cricket isn’t infinite, and the ECB has a delicate balancing act to perform.

Ajit Agarkar blasted India to an unlikely three-wicket victory over SouthAfrica A at Willowmoore Park in Benoni last night, hauling the tourists outof deep trouble with uninhibited display of clean hitting.Agarkar, in harness with Yuvraj Singh, carried the attack to the SouthAfricans after the Indians had stumbled and scratched their way to 156 forsix in the 37th over in reply to the home team’s total of 241 for six.The cause seemed all but lost when Agarkar joined Yuvraj, but the pair upsetthe South African rhythm and with HD Ackerman finding himself a bowler shortat one point, India capitalised. In the end, they won with five balls tospare.Less than an hour before, however, victory had looked only a remotepossibility for the Indians. Captain for the night Rahul Dravid and JacobMartin had put together 91 for the third wicket, but when Martin went for54, splendidly run out by Boeta Dippenaar’s direct hit, the innings startedto fall apart.Just a few overs previously Dippenaar had made a dreadful hash of a simplecatch to give Dravid a life on 31, but Dravid failed to take full advantageof this reprieve, hoiking wildly across the line against Roger Telemachus tobe bowled for 35.Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Deep Dasgupta came and went quickly and themomentum appeared to have drained away from the Indians, but Agarkar andYuvraj clearly had different ideas. Together they crunched 78 off just 69deliveries and although Agarkar fell for 49 off 43 balls, caught in the deepin the penultimate over, he had already done enough to win the match forIndia.The turning point, perhaps, came when Ackerman turned to Martin vanJaarsveldt’s occasional offspinners as he tried to protect Jon Kent who hadtaken punishment during his first six over spell. The ploy was hardly anunqualified success, Agarkar and Yuvraj hammered 20 off Van Jaarsfeld’s twoovers and the tide of the game had turned.Yuvraj hit the winning runs off the first ball of the final over to endunbeaten on 46 and the end might have come even earlier, but for a curiousincident. In Charl Langeveldt’s last over, Yuvraj crashed a straight driveback down the wicket at the bowler. The ball glanced off the bowler’s headand had been hit with such force that it carried on down to the boundaryropes.The umpires, however, had already signalled dead ball on the grounds thatthey believed Langeveldt might have been seriously hurt and the runs did notcount. Fortunately, he was able to walk off the field with an ice pack heldto his head and a rueful grin on his face.Earlier, the SA A innings had been built around a fine 117-run partnershipfor fourth wicket between Van Jaarsveld and Gerald Dros. The home side hadbeen given a useful start by Dippenaar and Jacques Rudolph who put on 62 forthe first wicket, but with Ajit Agarkar claiming the wickets of Dippenaar(34) and Ackerman (1) and Anil Kumble getting rid of Rudolph for 25, the Ateam were suddenly 75 for three after 19 overs.Van Jaarsveld and Dros, however, put the castle back together again, playingcalmly, picking up the ones and twos and taking advantage of shoddy Indianground fielding. Together they took the score along to 192 with seven oversremaining before Van Jaarsveld picked out Dravid at midwicket off HarvinderSingh to depart for 69.Dros picked up the pace in the closing overs, picking up Agarkar sweetlyover square leg for six and benifiting from a life on 80 when SS Das put himdown at deep backward square. He eventually went at the start of the lastover of the innings, but with the score eventually sneaking into the 240s,India would have known they had been set no simple task.The pick of the bowlers, by a distance, was the legspinner Anil Kumble,whose comeback after an absence of nearly a year because of injury continuesapace. Kumble’s first spell of seven overs yielded only five runs forRudolph’s wicket and he finished the innings with figures of 10-4-15-1. Itwas a masterly demonstration of control and economy and it augurs well forhis tour. He, and his fellow bowlers no doubt, might all appreciate a littlemore assistance from the fielders.

The first day of the four-day Supersport Series match between Boland and theHighveld Strikers in Paarl was washed out due to heavy rain.Play is scheduled to resume earlier on Saturday, but it is unlikely that itwill happen as the outfield was heavily soaked by thunderstorms in the earlyhours of the morning and persistent rain throughout the day.The suspension of play is to the detriment of the Strikers, the defendingchampions in the competition. They have won only one match in their fouroutings this season and require a win to progress in the tournament.Boland have only played once this season and scored a comfortable winagainst Free State at the same venue. The inclement weather is of far lessconcern to them than their opponents.The previous match against Free State was wrapped up within three days and it ispossible that this one could go the same way.With the atmospheric conditions and a pitch that will be lively and moist, winning the toss may prove to be vital.Boland have selected an all-seam attack, led by South Africa A player CharlLangeveldt and new Warwickshire signing Neil Carter.Highveld are a mixed bag and have included the spin of Clive Eksteen, sothey will possibly be looking bowl first and get the best out of the pitch.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has offered central contracts to 33 players, with top-grade cricketers being offered a whopping Rs 60 lakhs. The retainership for various categories was hiked and the BCCI announced that it would offer contracts to a record number of players. All top players have received A-grade contracts, while an extra category, the D-grade, has been created to include promising cricketers.The A-grade contract, which comes with a retainer of Rs 60 lakh, was offered to Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan. Of this lot, Zaheer is the biggest gainer as he was on a C-grade contract last year.Grade B comes with a retainer of Rs 40 lakh, Grade C 25 lakh and finally grade D Rs 15 lakh. In the final category the BCCI has included people like Subramaniam Badrinath and Cheteshwar Pujara, who have done well for India A but not yet made it to higher honours.Any player from outside this list who played for India would automatically fall into the D grade, and when a player from the D grade notches up five Tests or 15 ODIs in the year he would automatically be upgraded to the C category.Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors was part of the gradation committee that decided on which player would get what contract, along with Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, and Niranjan Shah, the secretary. Soon after the contracts were announced Vengsarkar said, “This is very good for the players. They are being rewarded for their performances. This will create a wider pool of players.”Full listGrade A
Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer KhanGrade B
VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, S Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik, RP Singh, Virender Sehwag.Grade C
Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Suresh Raina.Grade D
Rohit Sharma, Joginder Sharma, Manoj Tiwari, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Mohammad Kaif, Cheteshwar Pujara, Parthiv Patel, S Badrinath, Aakash Chopra, Yusuf Pathan.

The Indian board (BCCI) has given its players the go-ahead to give a percentage of their prize money to the Federation of International Cricketers (FICA) after Rahul Dravid reportedly wrote to the board last week seeking its permission to do the same.”We have told the ICC that we will distribute the entire prize money among the players,” Prof Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s Chief Administrative Officer, told the . “After that, it is up to the players to do as they wish with that money. All we are concerned about is that we cannot transfer the money to FICA on players’ behalf.”Shetty said that the board would not act as an intermediary since it was not affiliated to the FICA. “The players will have to do it themselves,” he said. “We have our players’ association which tackles players’ issues. So I am not sure whether this initiative will really take the players’ movement forward.”

Despite Sourav Ganguly’s plea that his ongoing spat with coach Greg Chappell should remain between the two men involved, his team mate, Harbhajan Singh, has spoken out in support of his captain – and accused Chappell of instilling “fear and insecurity” among the players. Ganguly’s team mates have remained understandably quiet – until now: Harbhajan is the first player to voice his opinion.Speaking to PTI, he urged that the controversy would reach its conclusion as soon as possible. “Whenever any controversy surrounds the team, the performance of team is adversely affected,” he said.”It will be good for the team if the controversy is immediately resolved so that every player can concentrate on his game instead of getting mental tension.”And Harbhajan denied the accusation that Ganguly wasn’t fit to captain the side, adding “…it may be the coach’s [Chappell’s] own observation but, as far as I am concerned, Ganguly has been proved as an excellent captain, which is evident from his match winning record.”The spinner also dismissed the notion that Ganguly was only interested in captaincy and creating difficulty among team members. “I have played for almost five years under the captaincy of Ganguly and never felt like that,” he insisted. “In fact, he takes personal interest to boost each and every player during practice as well as during a match.”Ganguly has rebuilt this team and whatever the team has achieved so far, credit goes to the captain.”

Robert Key was in a philosophical mood as he faced the press after his matchwinning performance in England’s warm-up fixture against a Nicky Oppenheimer XI at Randjesfontein. For all the purity of his strokeplay, as he cracked five sixes and seven fours in an 85-ball 87, he knows he might yet lose his place to Mark Butcher come the start of the Test series.Butcher was England’s ever-present No. 3 in 42 Tests from 2001, until he lost his place to Key last summer, following a freak car accident near The Oval. He then aggravated a thigh strain while picking up a cardboard box at his home in London. It was, as Key admitted, an unfortunate catalogue of misfortune.”I’ve said all along that I only got picked because Butch got hit by a car,” admitted Key. “He hasn’t had much luck in recent times, so if he gets in ahead of me that evens it up a bit. He’s got a bit of credit in the bank – he didn’t get dropped or anything, he just got injured in a freak way. He’s been one of England’s best players for several years now, so I’m philosophical about the situation.”Butcher’s case for a recall was further dented today, as he fell to Charl Willoughby for just 6 in the closing stages of England’s run-chase, but by then he was on a hiding to nothing, with just ten runs needed for victory and the Test-class bowlers, Willoughby and Heath Streak, back in the attack.Asked whether it would have helped the team cause if he and Marcus Trescothick had got out after reaching their fifties, Key responded: “That was pretty much what we were trying to do. But the boundaries were short and we were just having a slog. It’s amazing how well you can connect with the ball when you play without fear.””It was a bit like a pre-season game,” he added. “I don’t enjoy them all that much, because I don’t like using up all my luck in games that don’t matter. But we’re all feeling the pressure for our places at the moment, with the likes of [Ian] Bell and [Kevin] Pietersen coming up on our heels. We can’t afford to hold back for a minute.”

Yorkshire have confirmed the signing of Yuvraj Singh as their second overseas player for the 2003 county season.The decision was made following injuries to their other overseas player, Australia’s Matthew Elliott, and all-rounder Craig White. White is expected to be out of action for three months after undergoing a rib operation, while Elliott, who is carrying a long-standing knee injury and whose brother-in-law is battling a terminal illnees, is also expected to take a relatively long break.Yuvraj becomes the second Indian after Sachin Tendulkar to play for Yorkshire. He is expected to arrive in Headingley on Thursday and will make his Yorkshire debut in a Sunday League game against Leicestershire on May 18.”Sachin told me that I would enjoy it at Yorkshire and that I should take the opportunity with both hands,” Yuvraj told later.”I think everybody should have the experience of playing county cricket,” he added.Yuvraj has yet to play Test cricket, but he has 73 ODI caps to his name, and was a key component of the Indian team that reached the World Cup final.

After seeing his side end a shortened day at Taunton with six wickets down against Surrey, after having been in a strong position Kevin Shine said:”We had a very good start to the innings, but it wasn’t so good at the finish, we were looking for something better than that.”He went on “The ball swung consistently all afternoon, and hopefully it will for us again tomorrow, though the forecast isn’t very good.”What was he hoping for when play resumed on Friday,”If we can scrape together another hundred runs then we will have something to bowl at,” he said.