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As Zimbabwe Cricket continues to hog the limelight on and off the field, Dean du Plessis, a top cricket analyst and commentator in Zimbabwe, says the board must return to the old system of player development and selection on merit.”The way forward is very simple,” du Plessis says. “We have got to bring back a lot of the former players. Not because the current players are not good enough, there’s a lot of talent in these young players, and I mean seriously talented cricketers, but they need to go through the system like those other players.”All these other players went through the system, and I’ll speak in particular of the non-white players, such as Henry Olonga, Pommie Mbangwa, Tatenda Taibu, Bernard Pswarayi, Brighton Watambwa, all these guys had a correct system, none of these players that are playing now had a correct system.”du Plessis says the fall of the domestic structure in Zimbabwe has led the game to the brink of collapse. “First of all in the past they played club cricket. For example you had a young Trevor Madondo facing the likes of [Heath] Streak and [Eddo] Brandes at club level,” he said. “Then if you did well there it was one step further, you would proceed to the Logan Cup level.”Bear in mind in those days in one-day cricket when the likes of Madondo were around making their debut, there was no such thing as a bouncer. You were not allowed to bowl short-pitched deliveries. Now you are allowed one per over.”When Madondo or Dion Ebrahim or Alester Maregwede made their debuts for Mashonaland, or whoever they were playing for that time, suddenly they had to adjust their game plan because guys like Eddo Brandes, who we all know was a very good bowler, and Streak, were able to bombard them with bouncers. But if they still passed the test, they then went one step further. They then represented what was known as the Zimbabwe Board XI. So it was basically like a Zimbabwe A side.”He explains how the system in the past was successful: “The A side in those days used to play against South African provincial sides in the B section of the Supersport Series. Fine it was the B section, but it was a lot more competitive than our Logan Cup. So if the likes of Ebrahim got a hundred or Olonga took five or six wickets, they had still proved themselves like any other cricketer should. Only when they proved themselves at every level, club level, Logan Cup level, then the Board XI, then, and only then, did they play for Zimbabwe. It wasn’t just a huge jump.”For example Johnson Marumisa went to the ICC World Twenty20. Fine he didn’t play, but that man had never represented Zimbabwe at any form of international cricket. Yet he was in the Zimbabwe side simply because he was quite impressive at club level. You cannot gauge a player by playing club cricket. He has to go through the system. And that is what every single one of those players I mentioned went through.”Taibu, we all know what a good cricketer he is, Olonga, well, he was an injury-prone cricketer, but I tell you what, when he was on the park he was special. As was Watambwa, although his work ethics you had to question, his heart wasn’t on the game, he had other things on his mind. But he was a seriously talented cricketer, Brighton’s talent came naturally, he didn’t even have to work on it, and the list is endless.”

du Plessis says players are being fast-tracked into the national side, thereby exposing their insufficient development. “At the end of the day it’s all well and good, we all want the masses to be playing cricket…well I certainly do because it’s the way forward,” he said. “As a white man I’m telling you that if there were 11 black men out there on merit I would be very proud to support my team. If there were 11 white men out there I will still be proud to support my team.”But unfortunately what is happening now is that these guys are being picked for various reasons. They are not ready to play yet, and at the end of the day, not only is it Zimbabwe that are not benefiting because they continuously get beaten, but think of the cricketer himself. You are responsible for destroying his career because he is not ready to play international cricket.”So he goes out knowing that he has to perform. And he is not going perform because he is not ready yet. You know what damage you are doing to his confidence?”du Plussis, probably the best commentator left in Zimbabwe despite being blind, believes he has suffered for his criticism of Zimbabwe Cricket’s administration. He has been sidelined from doing commentary for the current ODI series against West Indies.”I have made some comments and remarks about cricket in this country in the past that haven’t gone down well with Zimbabwe Cricket,” he said. “But they weren’t unjust, they were fair, and I speak my mind and I will never change that until the day I die.”If a guy needs a compliment I will compliment him, but if he’s played badly, or if the administrator is not running the cricket the way it should be then I will mention it, because that is my job. And if they don’t like it then change the radio station or go and watch another channel, or watch cartoon network.”

Mumbai qualified for the Wills Trophy from the West Zone on Wednesdayby topping the table with the maximum eight points from their fourgames. In their last league encounter of the Ranji Trophy one daytournament, they registered a nine wicket victory over Baroda at theMotibaug ground in Baroda.Jacob Martin and Sameer Dighe, skippers of Baroda and Mumbai strolledout for a crucial toss as both Baroda and Mumbai were unbeaten intheir matches so far.Dighe won the toss and decided to chase a target as they had done inall their matches this season. Santosh Saxena (3/39) pushed Baroda onthe backfoot scalping Connor Williams (5) and Daulat Thorat (9) inquick succession. Kiran Powar ran out keeper Milap Mewada who did notface a delivery. Baroda were tottering on 33 for three.Jacob Martin (66) and veteran Tushar Arothe (76) put on a rescue actwith a 105-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Santosh Saxena brokethe partnership having Martin caught by Vinod Kambli and it was alldownhill for Baroda from there on. They folded up for 203 in 47.1overs. Allrounder Robin Morris chipped in with three for 30.Mumbai openers Robin Morris (56) and Wasim Jaffer (116 not out)continued their good form with the bat putting up their secondconsecutive hundred run partnership for the first wicket. Robin kepthis good form scoring his third half century of the tournament.Wasim’s 98-ball innings had two towering sixes and 15 hits to thefence. Robin put up two sixes and six boundaries in his innings.Mumbai romped home in 29.2 overs scoring at a rate of seven runs anover.

Zimbabwe’s World Cup squad are to receive less than half the pay they were originally promised in their contracts, according to a report in today’s edition of . The report claims that Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president and the patron of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU), has decreed that some players will lose as much as US$20,000 (about £12,400) from their original payout. And to make matters worse for players such as Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, who now both live in England, the majority of the money owed to them will be impossible to transfer abroad.First a little-noticed clause in the players’ contracts, stating that their fees would be cut by 19% if the ZCU’s income fell below a certain level, was invoked. This, combined with the horrendous state of inflation in Zimbabwe, and the conversion of their fees from American dollars to Zimbabwean ones at an unfavourable rate, all means that the players will eventually receive a meagre meagre sum. Add tax on top of that, and it’s no surprise that the players apparently feel as if they have been robbed.But where Flower and Olonga lose out even further is that they are no longer allowed to transfer their money out of the country. In order to access their foreign-currency accounts, they would have to fill out a form explaining how they are going to use it.One of the four Zimbabwe players who spoke to said: “We’ve been screwed. It’s daylight robbery.” The players in question asked not to be revealed as a legal battle is now likely, but another said: “It’s like they’re stealing our foreign currency and it’s only worth living in Zimbabwe if you can earn foreign currency.””We signed a contract and they agreed to pay us a certain amount,” said the third player. “Now we’re not going to get what they agreed. We have always been pay-as-you-earn individual employees. We’ve never been companies or corporate entities.”The other added: “This was the big payday for us, that only comes every four years. If your income is in Zimbabwe dollars, you just can’t make out. It’s scary. That’s why so many people are leaving the country.”Retraction: Zimbabwe players’ payments

The debut of the Three Ws-Sir Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott and Sir Everton Weekes – some 60 years ago changed the face of West Indies cricket forever. That history was celebrated on Tuesday night at the Queen’s Park Oval Banquet Hall in the presence of the last surviving member, Sir Everton Weekes.Worrell made his Test debut in 1948, at the Oval, against England. The match marked the start of the Three Ws era, and was also Andy Ganteaume’s lone Test appearance. Though the Trinidad and Tobago batsman made 112, he was never again selected on the regional team.Three perspectives on the life of Worrell and the 1948 Test match were presented at Tuesday’s function. Deryck Murray gave a player’s take on Worrell, Tony Cozier delivered a journalist’s point of view and Professor Courtney Bartholomew presented a personal perspective.All three speakers agreed that his contribution to West Indies cricket went “well beyond the boundary”.Murray described the 1948 Test as unique since it was Ganteaume’s first and last appearance. He said Ganteaume’s unfortunate situation will remain one of the defining moments of the era. Murray praised Ganteaume for the way he carried himself after being dropped after becoming the first West Indies batsman to make a century on debut, in the first innings of the Oval Test. The T&T board president said Ganteaume was “still able to contribute, and further the cause of West Indies cricket.”Murray recalled the first time he played under the captaincy of Worrell. “In Sir Frank Worrell we had a man who became accepted as the elder statesman of West Indies cricket…a unifying force. He was all things to all men. I understood how little the significance of insularity could be if you wanted to be part of a team. He insisted that room-mates could not be from the same territory, he insisted that there was an older and younger roommate so that at all times the team administration was about learning, mentorship and becoming a representative of a truly West Indian team in the true sense of the word. I have no hesitation in saying that Sir Frank Worrell was the greatest leader that world cricket has ever seen and probably even beyond that.”Cozier looked back at Worrell’s career. “Here is a man who, through cricket and from quite humble beginnings in Barbados, was knighted in 1964, the second West Indian cricketer to be knighted, was a senator in Jamaica, and when he died he was honoured by a Memorial Service in Westminster Abbey, the only cricketer to be so honoured.”It was here at the Queen’s Park Oval,” Cozier continued, “a 17-year-old school boy, batting No. 11 and considered a left-arm spin bowler, came onto the scene playing for Barbados. He moved up the order, and in 1946 he and Walcott put on an unbeaten partnership of 574 of which Worrell had 255 not out and Walcott 314 not out. “Sir Everton Weekes,” Cozier noted, “was out for a duck, but he more than made up for it in subsequent innings at the Oval.”

In the feature address, Bartholomew was high in praise for the Three Ws. “It was all for one and one for all,” he declared, noting that when Weekes was out for a duck at the Oval, Worrell and Walcott made up for it. It is a good thing that God made night or else Worrell and Walcott would still be at the crease.”Bartholomew also spoke about Worrell’s captaincy on the tour of Australia in 1960-61. At the end of the tour there was a ticker-tape farewell for the team, with 200,000 people lining the streets of Melbourne chanting “We want Frank”. West Indies lost the series 2-1 but featured in the first-ever tied Test. “We won the hearts of everyone in Australia and indeed the world.”In 1963, West Indies toured England and were again very popular. On that occasion, West Indies won the series 3-1. Worrell retired after the series, and died in 1967.The day before he died, Bartholomew recalled, Worrell told the nurses, “‘Please remove the drips … I am tired, very tired’. And so, the captain declared his innings retired hurt, before he reached his half-century, at the age of 42. The king is dead, long live the king. It was the worst of times.” Bartholomew thanked the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Committee for keeping the “memory of the King alive … it was the best of times.” Weekes and Ganteaume were presented with memorial plaques.

The MA Chidambaram Stadium at Chennai has hosted eight one-day internationals so far, of which four have been day-night matches. India have a 50% win record in the four ODIs they have played here.

New Zealand’s only ODI here – a quarter-final match of the 1996 World Cup against Australia – was a high-scoring game with two memorable batting performances. Chris Harris smashed 130 off just 124 balls as New Zealand amassed 286, but Australia found their man for the moment in Mark Waugh, whose beautifully paced 110 took his team to a six-wicket win with more than two overs to spare.

Past record suggests that the toss doesn’t have much of a bearing on the result of a day-night match at Chennai. In the four games played under lights, captains winning the toss have won two and lost two. Also, batting first seems as good an option as batting under lights, with both options achieving a success rate of 50%.

The first ODI at the MA Chidambaram Stadium was also the most thrilling of the eight played here so far. In a league match of the 1987 World Cup, Australia scored 270 and scraped through by one run after India’s middle and lower order fluffed their lines and made a mess of an excellent start provided by the top three. In fact, Chennai has been a particularly favourable ODI venue for Australia, who have won all four matches.

India’s other defeat here came courtesy a stupendous effort by Saeed Anwar, whose 194 – still the highest score in an ODI – allowed Pakistan to notch up 327. Rahul Dravid led India’s reply with 107 – the only Indian centurion at Chepauk – but Pakistan still eased to a 35-run win.

Sachin Tendulkar, in the throes of a horror run with the bat, hasn’t had as much success in ODIs in Chennai as he has had in the Tests. In three one-dayers, Tendulkar has scored just 80 runs, 68 of them coming in one match against England in 2001-02.

Last season, Nathan Pilon (1,193 runs) and Richard Chee Quee (874 runs) scored more than 2,000 runs between them. Each holds his club’s First Grade season record, and they will meet tomorrow when Chee Quee’s Randwick Petersham hosts Pilon’s St George at Petersham Oval. Both players have tasted success for NSW, and will be looking to once again impress selectors with big scores in Round 4, to be played over the next two Saturdays.Richard Chee Quee will lead Randwick Petersham’s batting line-up in the absence of teammate and new Australian star Simon Katich, and will be looking to find his O’Reilly Medallist form of two seasons ago. However, the Randy Petes will need to be at their best to halt the Saints’ batting brilliance.At Waverley Oval, competition leaders Mosman will be hoping that former NSW pacemen Phil Alley, Trent Johnston and Warwick Adlam are at their best against a confident Waverley batting lineup. Last round, the Dolphins overhauled Western Suburbs’ 466 in the highest run-chase in the 110-year history of Grade cricket. However, Mosman’s trio have also been impressive this season, with Johnston recording a hat-trick against University of NSW, and Adlam claiming six wickets against Gordon last week.Speedblitz Blues batsman Matthew Phelps will be hoping to post a big score for his new club Sydney University. Having been a noticeable omission from the Blues’ first ING Cup team, Phelps will be out to prove the selectors wrong when the premiers take on competition frontrunners Bankstown at University No 1 Oval. Bankstown will be without Mark Waugh, who posted an impressive century in the Bulldogs’ last match. However, Corey Richards will pose a threat to the Students, having scored an undefeated 165 in last week’s victory over Randwick Petersham.Other matches- Campbelltown-Camden v UTS-Balmain at Raby 1; Hawkesbury v Manly-Warringah at Owen Earle; Northern District v University of NSW at Waitara; Parramatta v Fairfield-Liverpool at Old Kings; Penrith v Gordon at Howell; Sutherland v North Sydney at Caringbah; and Western Suburbs v Blacktown at Pratten.

Australia’s newly-contracted state players and rookies will spend two days at Cricket Australia this week as part of the inaugural induction camp. Organised jointly by CA and the Australia Cricketers’ Association, the camp – to be held on September 16 and 17 – is designed to introduce the 22 players to the pressures and opportunities faced by first-class cricketers in Australia, as well as familiarise them with the policies and code of conduct established by the board.Presentations will cover player contracts, code of behaviour – including CA’s racial and religious vilification and anti-harassment codes – the spirit of cricket project, and the Memorandum of Understanding between CA and the ACA.There will also be presentations on professional development, financial management and a section on players and the law. Current and former first-class cricketers will talk about life as professionals. Michael Brown, the general manager cricket operations, said that the camp would help prepare players for some of the issues they might encounter during their cricket career.”Players who are new to the elite level can be forgiven for focussing only on their playing performances and the challenge of breaking into the team,” he said. “However, the role of the player induction camp is to show them a broader picture and highlight several other aspects of the game in Australia and their importance.”The demands on cricketers these days – and sportspeople across all codes in general – is vastly different to that of yesteryear. There is a lot more scrutiny and media exposure of cricketers, and we are committed to ensuring that our players are good ambassadors as well as being the best players they can possibly be.”We have a responsibility to ensure that all players in our national competitions are familiar with our expectations of them, and hope that the player induction camp will provide an excellent vehicle for newly-contracted state and rookie players to make a smooth transition into the elite level.”Tim May, the ACA’s chief executive, echoed those views. “Newly contracted state players are exposed to significant new pressures and responsibilities both as cricketers and as people as they progress along the cricketing pathway,” he said. “We believe the induction camp will assist players to better absorb the significant pressures they will face through their involvement in sport at this level, and additionally better prepare the players for their increased responsibility to both the game and cricketing public.”