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Greg Lamb, one of Zimbabwe’s most promising young players, has not been heard of in Zimbabwe this season and several readers have asked what has happened to him. One of them, Robin Mence of England, tracked him down in his own country. Robin has written a brief article for us.Greg Lamb, one of the inaugural intake into the CFX Academy, is currently in the UK. After two successful Logan Cup seasons and an `A’ Tour to Sri Lanka, he is currently awaiting a shoulder operation to have a screw inserted into his shoulder joint after a dislocation which occurred whilst fielding in a match during the English summer season.Greg has now had three consecutive summers in England, all in Surrey with Brook CC, Walton on Thames CC and Cheam CC respectively. His exploits at club level have brought him to various counties’ notice and this year he played second-eleven cricket for Kent CCC, Hampshire CCC and Gloucestershire CCC. He played mostly for Kent and is doing some winter training with the county. Always known for his batting, his off-spin is also developing well and, whilst once considered the most talented young batsmen in Zimbabwe, is now most certainly an all-rounder of huge potential.Greg is currently undertaking a Business Studies and Human Biology Course at Guildford College of Education. He is also working for Majestic, the Wine Merchants, but assures me that these two disciplines have not made him consider converting his parents’ tobacco farm to a vineyard despite the buoyant South African wine industry. After his operation Greg will be visiting his parents over Christmas and the New Year.With the current injury preventing any cricket for the foreseeable future, he is intent on regaining fitness and completing his current academic course. The injury is to his left shoulder and therefore should not hinder his bowling or throwing in the future. He expects to be fully fit for the 2002 English summer season with Cheam CC and Kent 2nd XI.Then he plans a return to Zimbabwe to compete for further representative honours. He feels frustration at his inactivity, particularly with Doug Marillier and Barney Rogers currently playing well. Indeed, with these three young talents Zimbabwe should be well covered, for the next decade, in the off-spinning all-rounder department.

Easterns maintained their increasing stranglehold on Zimbabwe domestic cricket with a seven-run win over Westerns in the final of the Twenty20 cup at Harare Sports Club.Easterns total of 142 for 9 was almost entirely down to Hamilton Masakadza’s 57-ball 82 not out, and his eighth-wicket stand of 43 with his brother, Shingirai, was the only partnership of note.Westerns were on course while Keith Dabengwa (42) and Gregory Strydom (38) were adding 62 for the third wicket but Prosper Utseya put the brakes on the innings and the last five wickets fell for 27 runs.Unsurprisingly, Masakadza was named Man of the Match and Player of the Tournament. He hammered 101 in the opening game of the competition and followed with 50 in the second match.Easterns won the Faithwear Cup and the Logan Cup in 2006-07, and so are now holders of all three major titles. Cricitics, however, have pointed out that the side is not representative as few, if any, of the players are local and are Harare-based cricketers imported for the competition. There were also concerns of the standard of the cricket on offer.Sadly, yet again, despite being rebuked by the ICC in 2006-07, Zimbabwe Cricket proved unable to provide the media with scorecards for many of the games, with the result that the competition’s profile was tarnished and reports of games minimal. That was reflected in dire turnouts for matches.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, West Indies’ middle-order batsman, is all set to be named as captain for their next month’s tour of England, replacing Brian Lara.Lara is likely to face the axe after West Indies’ unimpressive World Cup performance, one where they have lost their first four Super Eights matches.There are chances Lara, who will play his last two one-day internationals this week, may not be selected at all for the tour of England in May where the West Indies play four Tests and three one-day internationals.”I think the two names of Sarwan and Daren Ganga have appeared. Sarwan has been the vice-captain, so it’s up to the board to decide on the recommendations made by the selectors,” said former captain and current manager Clive Lloyd.Sarwan has been Lara’s deputy since 2003 and many believe he is the right choice to carry the West Indies team forward. Sarwan last week suggested he was ready for the responsibility.”If given the opportunity I will grab it with both hands,” said Sarwan, 26, who may get a chance to follow his fellow Guyanese Rohan Kanhai, Lloyd, Alvin Kallicharan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul as West Indies captains.He has led the West Indies in four one-day internationals, winning three. Ganga has led the West Indies A team and skippered the Trinidad & Tobago side to a domestic tournament win in January this year. When asked of Lara’s chances not being selected at all, Lloyd replied: “That is up to the selectors, I am not among them.”

Steve Bucknor’s potentially explosive comments, relating to production companies tampering with video footage to undermine umpires, have caused a stir around the cricket world. While no umpire has come out in support, and television producers expectedly brushed aside his comments, there is an undercurrent of unease in the broadcasting fraternity.”I thought it was a surprising comment,” Peter Hutton, a vice-president of TEN Sports, told , while suggesting that it was not even technologically possible to tamper with live video footage. “There’s not enough time to doctor or change things. But clearly you can get shown things from different angles. Most TV umpires know what angles can be made available to them and would insist on seeing everything possible. Sometimes all angles aren’t available because, for example, there might be a player or umpire in the way. As a TV company you can’t guarantee that every angle will be available to the umpire at every incident, and that may be frustrating for someone in the position of third umpire. I certainly would be hugely surprised if anyone did this with malice or with an intention behind this.”But while it might be impossible to alter the nature of the images, there were voices that hinted at television companies selectively controlling the information being made available to the third umpire. “The more technology ICC uses, the more they hand over responsibility to the television producer. The position of the mat is the producer’s responsibility and that can definitely be tampered with,” said Harsha Bhogle, the Indian broadcaster. “Even coming to TV replays that the third umpire sees, suppose there is a 24-camera coverage, you might have 8 cameras dedicated to recording replays. The pictures you get depend on the skill of the cameramen and the skill of the editor in choosing the right replay to show, and finally the director taking a call to show it. If the director is either incompetent or biased, then that is a problem because he controls what the third umpire sees.”One broadcaster, speaking on the condition of anonymity, concurred with Bhogle and even added that, “there have been suspicions in the past that producers, especially from certain countries, have been a touch too patriotic, and have withheld replays that went against home teams.” The problem will exist as long as the ICC use television companies as allies in the decision making process. Then there is the in-built economics of production itself: for the television producer, the primary aim is to produce the best quality broadcast at the lowest possible cost. This means that he would be reluctant to add a camera at midwicket, for example, if it did nothing to increase the quality of the viewing experience, even if it helped give the umpire a better view.

Although few people openly back Bucknor’s claims, there haven’t been too many accusations of this kind. In late 2004 John Bracewell, New Zealand’s coach, made similar allegations against Channel 9, who were broadcasting the Chappell-Hadlee series in Australia. Bracewell suggested that Hawk-Eye pictures of a certain delivery had initially shown the ball pitching in line and hitting the stumps, but subsequent depictions of the same delivery showed the ball pitching outside the map. “It’s absolutely irresponsible reporting,” Bracewell was quoted as saying. Paul Hawkins, the originator of the technology, insisted that Hawk-Eye images are tamper-proof: “There is no way for a production company to `tamper’ with Hawk-Eye’s decision. They either show it or they do not.”It is next to impossible to prove – one way or the other – Bucknor’s charge that television producers are deliberately making umpires look bad, and also influencing the decision-making process by showing replays of only certain angles, selectively leaving out others. But, the fact that he has made these statements has brought to the public domain something many have suspected for some time now.In all this, umpires around the world were keen to keep a low profile. When contacted Simon Taufel and David Shepherd declined to comment, while Rudi Koertzen was unreachable.The International Cricket Council, who have strict guidelines on the matters their members are allowed to comment on, didn’t have much to add either. Brian Murgatroyd would only proffer “no comment” when attempts were made to get a reaction to Bucknor’s statements, but he and his team certainly have plenty to think about now.

Australia’s preparation for the NatWest Series suffered a further blow when Brett Lee, their strike bowler, injured his shoulder in the warm-up game against Somerset at Taunton, where Australia stunningly failed to defend a target of 342. It was Australia’s second successive defeat on the tour, after they were thrashed by England in the Twenty20 fixture at The Rose Bowl.Lee, who has been Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the last two one-day tournaments, was forced to leave the field after bowling just four overs and was sorely missed in the rest of the innings as Sanath Jayasuriya and Graeme Smith plundered the Australian bowlers during their magnificent 197-run opening partnership.Ricky Ponting, who was visibly angered with his team’s performance, felt that Lee’s injury was a major concern. “He said the second last ball of his spell that he bowled he felt a really sharp pain in the back of his shoulder,” Ponting was quoted as saying in the ABC News website. “I knew something was wrong the last ball of the spell he bowled – I ran straight to him to see how he was and he knew he was in a little bit of trouble then. That’s about where it is though – we don’t know any more. I think he’s going to have scans on it at some stage so we’ll know exactly what’s wrong.”Though Lee hasn’t played a Test since January 2004, his one-day performances over the last few months have been outstanding. However, in the same period, he has picked up 49 wickets in 31 ODIs and even managed to play 13 games on the trot without any injury worries. Before the tour, Lee had said that he had fulfilled the three goals that the selectors had set for him – to stay fit, to take wickets consistently and to bowl as fast as possible – and hoped to force his way into the Test side.

The Hampshire allrounder, Dimitri Mascarenhas, has been found guilty of a level II breach of conduct, after an outburst against umpire Nigel Llong during the National League match against Essex on Sunday.Mascarenhas, who bowled Hampshire to an improbable victory over Leicestershire in the last rain-ravaged round of county games, has been given three penalty points by the England & Wales Cricket Board. They will remain on his record for a year, and he will face a suspension if that tally reaches 12.

It was always known that Hampshire would have a new captain this season, but now it has been confirmed that John Crawley will be the man to do the job. Originally, Hampshire had hoped to have Shane Warne as their captain, but the Australian’s one-year ban for a drugs offence left the county without a captain until Crawley’s appointment.Crawley, a 31-year-old who joined Hampshire for last season after an acrimonious departure from Lancashire, captained Lancashire from 1999 until 2001, leading the county to the National League title in his first year. Now he takes over from Robin Smith who retired from the post after five years in charge.Looking back at his previous time as a county captain, Crawley said: “I had three great years as Lancashire captain, except the last few weeks when it all went wrong. I am sure I have learned from that.”Crawley has scored nearly 18,000 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 47.41. He has played 37 Tests for England, the most recent being the successful fifth Test against Australia at Sydney on the recent Ashes tour when he featured in a vital 92-run stand for the sixth wicket with Alec Stewart. He then marshalled the tail to finish with an important 35 not out.He will not have an official vice-captain. With former captain Smith in his side and his deputy, Will Kendall, still around, there is no shortage of experienced players to offer Crawley advice and fill in for him should the need arise.

Robin Smith rolled back the years in scoring his fourth hundred against the Australians on the day Alan Mullally was left out of England’s latest Ashes squad.Smith, 79 not out overnight, was lbw to reserve paceman Ashley Noffke for 113, his third ton of the season, as Hampshire were bowled out for 354 – a first innings lead of 257.Noffke struck Smith with a bouncer moments before trapping him lbw and a day after bowling the Hampshire captain with a no-ball. Noffke finished with three Hampshire wickets.Then the Australian top order reminded their hosts why they are the best side in the world. Former Hampshire batsman Matthew Hayden crashed Mullally for successive boundaries through mid-wicket in bringing up his fifty. And he struck Shaun Udal for two sixes before finishing on 92 not out.Justin Langer was the only Australian wicket to fall in the second day. First slip Derek Kenway caught the opener at the second attempt after Langer had snicked Neil Johnson.But Simon Katich, who finished on 49 not out, helped Hayden put on an unbeaten 104 for the second wicket as the tourists narrowed Hampshire’s lead to 81.Robin Smith said: “It was great to get another hundred against Australia at this stage in my career and some of the bowling from Brett Lee and Jason Gillsepie was as good as anything I’ve every faced.”I can see why the England batsmen have stgruggled when you consider that Glenn McGrath was rested. But I think the selectors have been silly in leaving Alan Mullally out of the squad.”Hayden said: “It was really good to spend some time in the middle here – that is never a bad thing before a Test match,” he said, looking forward to this week’s Third npower Test at Trent Bridge.”The idea of these county matches is to get some time at the crease, so itwas a really frustrating first dig. It was a missed opportunity, and we put ourselves in a nasty position.”I have been feeling like I have been batting quite well. But I have not really put together the long innings.”It has been a frustrating little period. Even in the first Test I had 30 orso on the board and was really feeling good and hitting the ball well. But thenI got out to a good catch and a poor shot.”It has not quite been my series so far, but maybe after this the next Testwill be a big one for me.”

India Pistons on Saturday joined Chemplast, Pentasoft and India Cements to setup an all Chennai semi-final line up in the Moin Ud Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament. India Pistons made it to the semifinals despite losing the last league contest against Indian Oil Corporation. They went through by virtue of a better run quotient.Electing to bat first, Pistons in their quota of 50 overs put up 213 for 9. Pistons owed its score to KS Sahabuddin (64 not out) after the top order struggled to find their footing and were tottering at 110 for 7 in the 29th over. Shabuddin added 66 valuable runs with P Muthupandian (20) for the eighth wicket in 15.2 overs. Then with WD Balaji Rao, he added a further 37 runs for the ninth wicket when Pistons ran out of overs to end up at 213. Shabuddin during his 82 minute stay at the crease faced 65 balls and sent five balls to the signboards and twice managed to clear the ropes.In reply, Indian Oil Corporation started on a bad note when RS Sodhi struck thrice in his first three overs. He had Amit Dani (1) caught by Vasudevan in the second over of the innings and then in his third over, he dismissed Mithun Beerala (7). Hemant Kinicker (29) took the score to 80. But it was captain Mandhar Phadke (43) who held the IOC innings together with three useful partnerships with Jai P Yadav, RV Pawar and IR Siddique. After his dismissal Siddhique in the company of Zaheer Khan took IOC to victory.

Two of the batsmen the SCG crowd was desperate to see put in unusual performances as they faced off for one of the last times. The left-handed gunfight between Adam Gilchrist and Sanath Jayasuriya did not explode as the conditions were not ideal for the flashy strokeplay that has been a feature of the stunning openers’ careers.Jayasuriya’s only chance of returning to Sydney as a player is if Sri Lanka make the final and he was unable to find another jewel at a ground he adores in front of people who feel the same way about him. This time he was easily out-pointed by Gilchrist, who scored a 61 which was subdued by his exceptional standards.The previous time Jayasuriya toured here, having been reinstated to the team immediately after arriving late to the tour, he lashed a brutal 114, his third hundred in a row at the stadium. His 7 tonight included one striking boundary, a flay to third man off Brett Lee after he had joined Gilchrist in struggling to start in the usual tempo.Heavy rain forced the pitch to spend days undercover in the lead-up to the game and one of the results was slow and sometimes very low bounce. Something extra special was required for free scoring, which was achieved only by Matthew Hayden and Kumar Sangakkara in Australia’s 128-run win, and the surface upset the rhythm of the two top-of-the-order belters.Facing Lee a ball after hitting his boundary, Jayasuriya was not sure whether he wanted to leave outside off stump, but the bat drifted towards the ball, found the bottom edge and cannoned on to the stumps. A younger version of Jayasuriya would not have had the interference between mind and body, but he is 38 and the ticking grows louder by the tour.Gilchrist, 36, heard the retirement noise during the India Test series and his cross-country farewell is taking on the itinerary of a rock band. He is desperate to give his fans some final memories to lock away, but the conditions were not conducive to blasting entertainment and he was cautious for most of the innings.When Hayden was 33, Gilchrist was 4, but things soon looked like changing when he pulled a fierce six in front of square off Lasith Malinga’s speed and crunched boundaries through and over cover off Ishara Amerasinghe. However, a couple of legside miscues that narrowly avoided fielders showed the difficulty in gauging the bounce and the sensible option was taken.Often Gilchrist half-centuries have come before the 15-over mark, but his 54th fifty arrived in the 27th over from 67 balls. It is a measure of the way Gilchrist has altered expectations that it felt like he was crawling. Until Jayasuriya gained confidence as a one-day opener in the 1990s that rate of scoring was considered healthy. Both men rejected such thoughts and sprinted at a speed that was breathtaking and bowler breaking.Gilchrist was trying to lift his pace when he tried to sweep Chamara Kapugedera, who is significantly faster than medium, and missed. The ball was going on to the stumps until it hit Gilchrist’s pad and Tony Hill, the umpire, almost pointed at him to signal the dismissal.He headed for the dressing room to more moving applause, having taken 81 balls to register three fours and the six. A similar reception came when Jayasuriya trod back through the members’ area, ending one of the final head-to-head battles of a couple of game-changing swashbucklers.