All posts by csb10.top

John Bracewell, the Gloucestershire coach, has told the England management to stop blaming county cricket for the national side’s shortcomings. Bracewell, who leaves at the end of the season to coach New Zealand, accused England of having an excuse environment.After England’s 191-run defeat against South Africa at Headingley, Michael Vaughan claimed that county cricket was not tough enough to prepare players for Test cricket. But Bracewell said it’s time Vaughan and the management stepped out of their blame culture and stopped making excuses, and that they can start by looking at their rugby counterparts.He said, “They should sit down and talk to Clive Woodward and work out a similar environment to the England rugby side. There they have a no-excuse environment.” He continued, “If the England rugby team lose the World Cup it will be because of their players and not because of what’s been put around them. If we trip up at Gloucestershire we know it’s down to us. It’s our problem. Because we’ve been given the budget, the environment and the licence to do what we like.”But England haven’t bought into that. They’ve got the contracts they want, they take blokes out of games and they still blame the nursery of the game. It does annoy me. The England cricket team has an environment that offers them a lot. Not every cricket team in the world is gifted with the resources the England cricket team has.”Bracewell has led Gloucestershire to six one-day trophies in five years, including this year’s Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy, in which they thumped Worcestershire by seven wickets in the final.

It all seemed to going to plan for Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka’s new captain.During the morning Sri Lanka’s bowling and fielding was zippy andpurposeful. Despite the early loss of Sanath Jayasuriya, the home side werestrolling on 62 for one. But Pakistan came storming back into the match inthe last quarter to complete a crushing 79 run win in the opening match ofthe Bank Alfalah Cup at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium.Sri Lanka started disastrously – Shoaib Akhtar celebrated his recall to theside by removing Jayasuriya for a first-ball duck – but only lost their wayafter an Abdul Razzaq inswinger thudded into the pads of Atapattu, who hadgrafted hard for his 26 from 67 balls. The leg-before decision ended a 61run stand for the second wicket and was the catalyst for Sri Lanka’spathetic freefall.Akhtar was pulled back into the attack and the speedster quickly accountedfor Sangakkara, who had been dropped on 2 and 17. Sangakkara skewed aback-foot drive to Shoaib Malik at point (75 for 3). The recalled MahelaJayawardene and Russel Arnold, who has had little match practice since beingdumped after the World Cup, rallied briefly, adding 33 in 37 balls.But then came the quick demise. Mohammad Sami planted a 90 mph inswingingyorker on Jayawardene’s toe, winning a dubious leg-before shout, and RomeshKaluwitharana, another returnee, chipped a catch tamely to mid-wicket offShoain Malik (99 for 5).Sri Lanka started to panic. Kaushal Lokuarachchi and Chaminda Vaas were runout and Russel Arnold, who had crawled to 13 from 49 balls, skied a catch ashe top edged a sweep. Malik and Sami then mopped up the tail – Sri Lanka hadlost seven wickets for 22.Atapattu’s first day in charge had begun well. His fast bowlers exploitedheavy overhead conditions, moving the ball in the air and off the pitch, toseize the initiative. His spinners nipped away at the middle order and thefielders clung onto to every chance that came their way.Mohammad Hafeez anchored the innings, top-scoring for the visitors with apatient 53 from 114 balls – his second one-day fifty in his fifth match -but their best partnerships ended just when they looked like they mightflourish. Hafeez added 48 with Faisal Iqbal (21) and 45 with Younis Khan(29).Both Chaminda Vaas and Prabath Nissanka found assistance from the pitch andfrom the heavy atmosphere. Vaas swung the ball, while Nissanka extractedbounce and seam movement from the brown, grassless pitch. Both beat the batregularly and Atapattu pressed for wickets, setting aggressive fields duringthe first half of the innings.Taufeeq Umar (9) opened his account with a flicked boundary just wide of adiving Kumar Sangakkara at square leg, before edging a catch to RomeshKaluwitharana behind the stumps in the eighth over of the morning (21 for1).Faisal Iqbal, the nephew of coach Javed Miandad, would have been run outwithout scoring had Sanath Jayasuriya at cover-point not missed the stumps.He and Hafeez were quite comfortable against Sri Lanka ‘s allrounders -Kaushal Lokuarachchi and Kaushalya Weereratne – but run-scoring remaineddifficult.Muttiah Muralitharan, whose entry into the attack was delayed thanks to thetight bowling of his colleagues, then broke through in only his second over.Iqbal edged an arm-ball to Mahela Jayawardene at slip, and he clung on to asharp catch to his left (69 for 2).Six balls later, Yousuf Youhana (1), Pakistan’s leading batsmen after thepost-World Cup purge, was also caught by Jayawardene at slip offLokuarachchi. He attempted an extravagant square cut, but only ended upgloving the legbreak straight to Jayawardene (70 for 3).Hafeez and Khan steadied the innings, adding 45 in 75 balls but whenMuralitharan returned for his second spell, they were soon back in trouble.Khan, looking for his first boundary, mistimed a leg-side flick and wascaught in the deep (115 for 5).Shaoib Akhtar was a bizarre choice at number six, as Rashid Latif tried tokickstart the innings with a few boundaries. But the plan failed as Akhtar,overly anxious to grab the strike from his cautious partner, was run out for5 (123 for 5).Sanath Jayasuriya – the most expensive of the three spinners employed -ended Hafeez’s painstaking vigil when he tried to loft a straight drive overKumar Sangakkara at deep mid-on. Sangakkara held on to a fine diving catch(158 for 5).The allrounders came and went. Shaoib Malik breezed to 20 from 14 balls,before being run out and Rashid Latif (14) biffed one four before becomingMuralitharan’s third victim of the innings – Kaluwitharana completing astumping (181 for 8). Abdul Razzaq did have time to smash one six in his unbeaten 24 from 27 balls as 14 runs were stolen from the last over.The performance of the three teams during this tournament will affect theirpositions in the International Cricket Council’s new One-Day InternationalChampionship table. Sri Lanka, currently in fourth position, have a chanceto move into third position ahead of Pakistan, while New Zealand – currentlyequal seventh with England – can move ahead of West Indies into sixthposition in the ratings.

After a spate of injuries and illness in their opening game of the seasonat Derby, Glamorgan lost the services of another player even before their first homeChampionship match, against Hampshire at Cardiff, had begun. CaptainSteve James withdrew from the side with a knee injury, and handed over thecaptaincy duties to Robert Croft.With a depleted bowling attack at his disposal against a batting line-upboasting the vastly experienced Robin Smith and John Crawley, the acting captainmust have been delighted that Glamorgan were able to restrict Hampshire to 381-5 from104 overs on an easy-paced Sophia Gardens wicket.After the visitors had won the toss, Crawley and Smith shared a partnershipof 123 in 30 overs for the second wicket. Crawley made 65 before being bowledby Alex Wharf, and Smith had moved onto 92 when he edged a delivery fromyoung all-rounder David Harrison into the gloves of wicket-keeper Mark Wallace.Harrison also claimed the wicket of Will Kendall, trapping the Hampshire batsmanleg before for 32. Later in the day, Yorkshire-born Alex Morris and Nic Pothas, who hasplayed in one day internationals for South Africa, added 122 forthe fifth wicket in 25 overs. Their stand ended when Morris swatted a short ball fromAndrew Davies to David Harrison at mid-off, but Pothas was still there at the close,unbeaten on 81, and in sight of his second Championship century of the season.

Runs in Sri Lanka? There weren’t many for Zimbabwe’s batsman recently, but it was a comparatively inexperienced batsman, Trevor Gripper, who scored the most (167 in six innings) and also recorded the team’s highest individual score of 83. This was after scoring his maiden Test century in Sri Lanka, so it was a great advance for him in his career. He talks to CricInfo about the tour.This was my first tour to the subcontinent. The wickets there are obviously a lot slower and lower than those in Zimbabwe, and they take a hell of a lot more turn! The Bangladesh pitches were pretty flat and plumb at the start of a match, but did take turn on the fourth and fifth days.The Sri Lanka pitches are a lot different; they take a lot more turn, even on the second and third days. Otherwise the conditions are very hot and humid. They suit Muralitharan very well, and as one of the umpires from England, David Shepherd, mentioned, he’s a magician.It was nice to get back into the Test team in Bangladesh, and obviously I want to consolidate a place in the opening spot. I think we’ve always had a problem with the opening position in Zimbabwe: guys are always in and out and it’s not an easy job. But hopefully I can get some consistent scores in and do some good.We needed at least one specialist spinner on tour, and I thought that was one area where we lacked. If we pick three seamers in the subcontinent and go into a match with only part-time spinners, including myself, Grant Flower and Douggie Marillier – although Douggie is a really good off-spinner – I think we’re going to struggle. I don’t know if Geoff Marsh tried to get them to send out any spinners for us, but I’m sure he would have done, being an experienced cricketer himself.In the First Test in Bangladesh we got off to a nervous start, but our middle and lower order consolidated and did some real good for us, which put us into a winning position. All credit goes to Heath Streak, Douggie Marillier, Craig Wishart and Travis Friend – especially Travis, who got 81. He batted brilliantly and showed us how to bat on those pitches. I think he’s got a great future in the game.Craig Wishart was one of our top scorers in Bangladesh, but in Sri Lanka, with the spinners and the way they turn the ball there, it’s not an easy thing. If you grow up with those kind of pitches, I think you’ll do a lot better playing spin. We haven’t grown up with that, but we learn – we’re always learning in this game. I think we can take a lot of positives out of that tour.Our bowlers bowled very well in that First Test, and Travis again got a five-fer. He bowled really well and so did Heath, who was unlucky, just taking two wickets. Henry Olonga also bowled very well to take three, but the match was rained off.Then in the Second Test my first Test century – I suppose it’s a dream everyone wants. When I started off the morning, it looked a very decent pitch. We weren’t sure how it would actually play, as we had heard it does a bit in the morning, so we were prepared to stick out the first hour.We actually lost the toss and were put in to bat. In the first hour it didn’t do a hell of a lot. They do have a good seam attack, with Mashrafe Mortaza quite a quick bowler who swings the ball late; he’s got a good future in the side. But the pitch proved really plumb and once you got through the new ball it was relatively easy to stay in, although it was harder to score because it was such a slow pitch. I thought we did really well to score over 500.I got to 50 before lunch – the first time in my career! – and was feeling quite confident playing the spinners. My attitude towards batting has changed a hell of a lot. I’ve put in a lot more work on my shot-making and, with the help of Geoff Marsh who I think is a really good coach, we can only go from strength to strength.After lunch I looked to consolidate and formed some good partnerships with Stuey Carlisle, Grant Flower and Andy Flower. I felt pretty determined to get that hundred. Craig Wishart also enjoyed his first Test century, after getting in the nineties a couple of times and then being unluckily run out.Then in the second innings I scored all 11 runs to win the Test match! I have to say that was almost as good as my century! That was the first Test match I’ve ever played in that we won, and it was another very good moment. After we lost Dion Ebrahim and Stu, that 11 runs seemed a long way away, but once we got them it was a great feeling.Dion batted really well in the one-dayers and got a hundred and an eighty. I got into that side; like I said, I’ve improved and I also want to consolidate my place in the one-day side. Obviously I’m still new to the one-day game, especially on the international arena, but I think I can play both forms of the game and I look forward to a future in it.We set a goal to win the one-day series three-nil, and we did. I think we batted generally well, and again Craig Wishart batted exceptionally well, getting most of our runs. Dion did really well, and got us a hundred in one match and eighty-odd in another. He looked in really good touch, but in Sri Lanka he struggled for runs. The seamers there are not easy to play, but they’re easier than the spinners on those pitches. Against the spin it’s not an easy task.Hamilton Masakadza came back into the team for the Tests in Sri Lanka and it was unlucky for Dion to lose his place. He showed good form in the one-dayers, but he played in a warm-up game and didn’t get any runs, and I think he got dropped for that.Hamilton coming back boosted our batting line-up a bit in terms of confidence, and Gavin Rennie as well. I think Muralitharan struggles a bit against left-handers and Gavin had a really good tour. Murali was the only one who did the real damage, getting 30 wickets in all three Tests. As I said, he’s like a magician and he’s going to win Sri Lanka a lot more games in the future.Hamilton handled the conditions pretty well; it was his first tour, like it was my first tour, and you have to have the right mind-set. You can’t think you’ll go out there and score a lot of runs quickly as you can do here in Zimbabwe on a flat pitch with a lot of bounce. Sri Lanka have a good seam attack in Zoysa and Vaas, before Muralitharan and the other spinners come on.I think Andy Flower, being the greatest batsman in Zimbabwe, has different pressures on him to other guys in the team, and I have no doubt that class is permanent and form is temporary. In his case, he’s the classiest player we’ve got and I have no doubt he will be back again scoring runs as soon as possible.We also had a few unlucky decisions go against us in all three Tests and we have to take that into account. When you have a limited resource of players such as we have, when you lose a couple of batsmen to unlucky decisions that can change a game. I think we all got some rough decisions there.I think Geoff Marsh is definitely going to take us places as a coach. He has good man-management and he knows a lot about the game.In the Second Test – well, I got a lot of twenties and thirties that I could have converted into fifties and hundreds, but again Muralitharan in the first two Tests got me out all four times. I would survive the first five overs against the seamers and then get out when Murali came on.He’s got it all as a bowler: he has his big turner, the off-spinner, and then the straight one and the one that goes the other way. I think all round the world batsmen battle to pick the one that goes the other way. When he’s bowling like that, pitching on a good length, if you nick it or get a `roughie’ you can only count yourself unlucky. But the fact remains that I have to turn those twenties and thirties into higher scores.Batting against Muralitharan, we looked to cover off stump and I personally looked to play the line of the ball instead of the turn, and if it was going to hit me outside the line obviously I can’t be given out. You just have to be patient with that one that goes the other way. I think in the last Test we showed patience against him, when the ball was turning a lot more than in the other Tests. I think that frustrated him, the fact that the ball was turning too much and he couldn’t control the turn.But I think he’s going to get 600 wickets fairly soon. In Sri Lanka especially he’s going to bowl almost half their overs in an innings, so I’d expect him to take that many five-fers and that many ten-fers in Test cricket.After losing the First Test, we had to try and devise a plan on how to win the Second Test, and I think in a sense we looked to score against Muralitharan instead of just biding our time. I personally looked to score off him and got out trying to do that. That’s the way cricket goes sometimes.It’s a tough tour to Sri Lanka, and I don’t think any side is going to go there and roll the Sri Lankans. They said it themselves: they are the best side in the world in their own conditions, and I don’t doubt that – with Muralitharan in the side! Without him, I think we’d at least have secured some draws, but without him in their side I think they would have prepared different tracks with perhaps a bit more grass to suit their seamers. They do have a world-class seam attack in Zoysa and Vaas, and I’m sure they’re going to do very well on overseas pitches, outside the subcontinent. Obviously with Muralitharan in your side you are going to prepare pitches for him! Pitches can win you Test matches.We had a great start at Galle. They won the toss and batted first, and got off to what they would have regarded as a shaky start. Then they consolidated with their lower order, Chandana getting 92, and got quite a decent first-innings score of over 400. In the first two days the bowling on that pitch went quite well, Douggie Marillier doing really well with four wickets.We got off to quite a solid start as well with our batting, and Stuey and I scored 153 for the first wicket. But again we have to turn them into hundreds, and big hundreds, especially on those pitches. Then we had a collapse and one of us had to bat through there. I’m not too sure how it came about that Stuey came to open with me, but that’s up to the management. He has opened before in Test matches, so it’s not a new thing for him.Again, the spinners did the damage. Like I said, Murali turned the ball a lot more in Galle than in other places, and in that Test he almost turned it too much; he wouldn’t get the lbw decisions and he was beating the bat two balls each over. So for him it was frustrating. And as the pitch grew worse and worse, they turned the ball even more and more. They got it right in our second innings and went right through us.For most of us, it was our first tour to the subcontinent and I think we can take a lot of positives in our batting. In our bowling, when we go to that part of the world I think reverse swing is a necessary weapon for our seamers. We need to master that; their seamers reverse-swing the ball more than we did and knew how to control it better.I think Sangakkara is one of their better batsmen; he’s got a good technique. Marvin Atapattu has a high average against us, another with a good technique, but he had a lean tour against us. Another guy who did really well against us is Samaraweera, a batsman who can also bowl off-spin. He got a lot of runs in the series.There’s always going to be a lot of verbal banter on the field – it happens in Test match cricket. Off the field we got on pretty well; I don’t think we have any problems with the Sri Lankans. But obviously with a few umpiring decisions that didn’t go our way we got a bit grumpy at times.I think our team gelled really well together. I think Geoff Marsh has brought in a lot of new ideas and as a team we are definitely getting it together.I can’t take anything for granted personally right now regarding my batting, but I can only take it tour by tour. About six months ago I thought I’d never play for Zimbabwe again, and when I came back from England I was in the side after four weeks. So you can never tell.

DURBAN, South Africa, March 19 AP – Torrential rain in Durban could force organisers to postpone Thursday’s World Cup semifinal between India and Kenya.But Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly says his team will come out singing, be it rain or sunshine.”We’ll have to keep an eye on the weather and the formula to decide rain-hit matches,” Ganguly said Wednesday as heavy showers dampened the prospect of the semifinal going ahead on schedule.”One can’t go into the match getting too worried about the weather, but we’ll handle any situation that might develop,” he said.The weather factor, which hastened host South Africa’s exit from the tournament in Durban, is again in play after the eastern coastal city of Durban was hit by heavy downpours starting Tuesday night.Rain is expected to continue throughout Wednesday, and intermittent showers have been forecast for match day.If the match is not completed by Friday – the reserve day – India’s six-wicket victory over Kenya in a Super Six encounter two weeks ago will secure it passage into Sunday’s final against defending champion Australia.The KwaZulu-Natal region has been under a dry spell for the past two months, experiencing its least rainfall in 27 years.And while the rain was welcomed by the residents of this city, the World Cup organisers were hoping for a break.Kenya’s coach Sandeep Patil, a member of India’s champion 1983 team, hoped the semifinal is played on Thursday.”We’ve no control over the weather, but we’d like to play on Thursday itself. We are prepared for the game,” Patil said.

Central Districts run the risk of leaving Eden Park tomorrow without any State Championship points – and facing a $1000 bill for a slow over-rate.When the third day of their match against Auckland on the Eden Park Outer Oval finished 14 overs short because of bad light tonight Auckland, needing 210 to win from a minimum of 150 overs, were 109 for two wickets with 100 overs offered in a full day tomorrow.With Matt Horne leading the way with a solid unbeaten 50, Aaron Barnes 20 not out and the pitch losing much of its early life, Auckland must be favoured to score the remaining 101 runs for victory.At the same time, Central Districts must improve their bowling rate significantly. At the moment they are averaging 14.4 runs an over. The pass-rate is 15 overs an hour (Auckland are safely above that at 16.1) and a team scoring between 14 and 15 overs can be fined $1000. A mark between 13 and 14 would incur a further $1000 fine. In the past slow-over fines were worked out over a season. Now they are scored after every game, and appropriate penalties imposed.This will not be good news for Central Districts, especially as the game slipped steadily from their grip yesterday. They started at 142/3 wickets and David Kelly soon had his richly-deserved century, after 287 minutes of honest toil, and 17 boundaries marking his ability to drive the ball powerfully.But Kelly was gone for 114, the total 167/4, and the CD innings never really regained the momentum needed to reach a pass-mark of 300 which would have given Auckland a stiff winning target.The Central batsmen again fell for the Andre Adams trap, the bustling medium-fast bowler with the ability to get his sharper deliveries past the bat and into the pads.Adams had Kelly caught and then removed Jamie How, Campbell Furlong and Bevan Griggs, all lbw to balls whipping into the pads – and all decisions to umpire Tony Hill.Ewen Thompson batted bravely with his one good hand for 18 in a last-wicket stand with Michael Mason which was worth 26 runs, but it was too little and too late to get Central past a second innings of 267.This left Auckland 50 overs today and another 100 tomorrow to score 210 for victory. Horne and Tim McIntosh batted with reasonable comfort to 34 before McIntosh was out, and the youngster Nick Horsley scored eight as he helped Horne lift the total to 60.Thereafter, Horne gained new confidence as the new ball lost its shine, and he was cruising along nicely at 50 not out when the umpires surprisingly decided the light was too bad for further play – a decision which suited Auckland.Now Central face a difficult last day, knowing that seamers may well be their only chance of snatching eight Auckland wickets, yet realising that Furlong’s quick overs of off-spin might be needed to avoid a $1000 penalty.

Amitabh Velaskar and Narayan Kambli combined to give Goa the upper hand during their Ranji Trophy league match against Hyderabad at Panaji on Wednesday.Batting overnight on 37, Velaskar went on to make 87 before falling as the ninth wicket. In the process, he took Goa past the 300-run mark. He was given little support from the tail, but managed to farm the strike enough to face 179 balls and hit 12 fours in his knock.Replying to Goa’s total of 306, Hyderabad received early setbacks when openers Daniel Manohar and A Nand Kishore were out with 32 runs on the board. When Anirudh Singh was dismissed, four wickets had fall for 41, and Kambli had taken three of them.It took resolute fifties from D Vinay Kumar and Arjun Yadav to see Hyderabad through to the close of play. Vinay Kumar was unbeaten on 52 off 130 balls, while Yadav had made 53 off 132 balls at stumps. Hyderabad ended the day on 154/4.

“What a difference a day makes”, goes the song, and that was the feeling on the second day of Hampshire’s Frizzell Championship match with Glamorgan at The Rose Bowl, when 14 Hampshire wickets fell to leave the home side in desperate trouble, facing an innings defeat.The County Championship was never supposed to be similar to 20/20 however seven Hampshire batsmen fell during the day, having got started, only to fall in the twenties.Dimitri Mascarenhas took the final wicket to fall of the Glamorgan innings, but as Hampshire started their reply they looked to the sky, which the previous day was permanantly blue, today was overcast and humid, made for swing bowlers. In Michael Kasprowicz they had just that, as the batsmen fell at steady intervals. Kenway, Adams, Crawley, Francis and Tremlett reached their 20 milestones, and when Hampshire were invited to bat again, Kenway and Adams for a second time joined in.Kasprowitz a strong swing bowler bowled long spells and was rewarded with a 5-wicket haul, as Hampshire finished with a woeful 185.Invited to follow on, this time it was skipper Robert Croft who did the damage, taking four wickets to leave the home side in the mire. Simon Katich broke the 20 run hoodoo to reach his half century, but he fell in the last over of the day, trying to pull Croft to deep mid-wicket only to find Alex Wharf waiting for the catch.

Skipper Tushar Arothe hit a fine century to give Baroda the upper hand in their Ranji Trophy league match against Saurashtra at Rajkot on Thursday.Baroda started their first innings well, putting on 70 runs for the first wicket. Nayan Mongia, batting at number three, hit an unbeaten 74, made off 149 balls with seven fours. He held the fort as a mini-collapse occurred with him at the other end.Arothe’s presence stabilised the innings, and the pair took Baroda through to the close of play. At stumps, Baroda were 283/4, with Arothe not out on 105 off 202 balls. Mongia and Arothe had added 149 runs for the fifth wicket.

New Zealand’s cricketers who have wintered at home go into a pre-tour camp at Lincoln University this week before flying to Sri Lanka on Saturday for a tri-series with Sri Lanka and India.Recently in England, Sir Richard Hadlee spoke to CricInfo during the Weekend of Legends at Nottingham. He reflected on a year as New Zealand’s chairman of selectors.”We have a high degree of optimism in our game,” Hadlee said. He and his fellow selectors Ross Dykes, Brian McKechnie and coach David Trist, “took the positive step to look to the future with the 2003 World Cup coming up, so we picked four or five players, in effect, from nowhere.”These are the men who will carry the CLEAR Black Cap hopes in Sri Lanka from July 18­ to August 5 in the triangular one-day tournament made up by India.On his fellow selectors, Hadlee emphasised, “We work well as a panel and we’ve been severely tested both on and off the field, probably more so in the media with the direction we¹re taking.”The selectors’ hands were rather forced in their decisions, for last year 31 players were picked for the Black Caps, but 18 were unavailable, through illness or injury, at some stage or another.The men pinpointed by Hadlee for their development over the last six months include James Franklin, Daryl Tuffey, Chris Martin, Lou Vincent and Jacob Oram – “all previously unknown players.””Mark Richardson’s been the greatest find,” he continued. “We believe that over the next few months, and certainly the next few years, we will get the results that everyone wants.”On captain Stephen Fleming, Hadlee said, “I think he’ll come back a better player technically and mentally and that’s going to help New Zealand cricket.””He’s had a tough time as a captain and a player. Virtually every game he didn’t know what XI he was taking onto the field because of the injury crisis.””He is the only player in New Zealand who can captain the side. He’s got the job for seven or eight or ten years if he wants it.”The downside of English county cricket is the injuries so much play can cause. Chris Cairns, the man Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya most fears in the New Zealand set-up, was due to play for Nottinghamshire this year, before chronic long-term injuries caught up with him. On Dion Nash, who first wrecked his back with Middlesex in the mid-1990s, Hadlee said, ” He has a huge effect on the side. We need him back.”Although Hadlee will not be going to Sri Lanka, there is no doubt his increasingly sure influence as a selector will be felt in the improving New Zealand international team.