Legspinning allrounder Collins Obuya, one of Kenya’s heroes in the 2003 World Cup, has struggled to live up to the potential he showed then. Shortly after the tournament he suffered a knee injury, and since then he has suffered from the yips and a crisis of confidence.But thanks to private sponsorship raised by the Kenyan Cricket Association, Obuya will fly to Australia next week to spend time with Terry Jenner, the legendary legspin coach who is widely credited for helping Shane Warne scale the heights of international cricket.”Collins has struggled with is bowling ever since that knee injury in 2003 and we decided it would be wise to have him work with a specialist on his action as we try to get the players fit for the World Cup,” explained KCA chief executive, Tom Tikolo. Obuya was signed by Warwickshire shortly after the World Cup, but the knee injury quickly ended his county ambitions. He suffered another blow when an appendicitis caused him to miss the 2004 Champions Trophy in England.Although he is now fit, Obuya has struggled to find any consistency with the ball. In four Intercontinental Cup matches this season his four wickets have cost 61.25. This has impacted on his batting, with only one fifty in six innings and an average of 18.00.Jenner is renowned for his one-on-one coaching technique, and it is expected that Obuya will stay with him while in Australia.

An Indian delegation will arrive in Lahore over the weekend to assess security at the venues, especially at the port city of Karachi, ahead of India’s tour next month.”The five member security team is arriving here and will tour Karachi on December 26,” Zakir Khan, the security coordinator of the Pakistan board, told AFP on Friday.India will start their tour of Pakistan from January 6, playing three Tests and five one-day games. New Delhi has cleared the tour but concerns remain, particularly over violence-plagued Karachi where foreign teams have previously refused to play a five-day Test. India rejected the city for a Test when they toured Pakistan last year, their first tour across the border since 1989-90.Pakistan cricket authorities were confident Karachi would get the go-ahead to host a Test and limited-overs game after England played a one-day game there without any problems early this month. Yashovardhan Azad, a senior police official and security expert, heads the visiting delegation that includes officials from the Indian board – Ratnakar Shetty, GS Walia, Rajiv Shukla and Ranghbir Singh Krishna. Azad, elder brother of Kirti Azad, former India player, managed security for the Pakistan team in 1999 and early this year.Khan said an assessment of all the venues would not be possible because of heavy fog in the Punjab. “Besides Karachi, the next important venue is Peshawar, where the team will visit after Karachi,” said Khan. Peshawar has also been rejected by foreign teams in the past because of its close proximity with Afghanistan. England also refused to play in Peshawar, but India played a one-day game in the northern city on their last trip.

Johan Botha, the South African offspinner, has been reported for having a suspect action following his Test debut at Sydney.Chris Broad, the ICC match referee, said: “Concerns have been raised by the match officials over the general legality of his bowling action and, in particular, his ‘doosra’ and quicker deliveries when viewed with the naked eye. We are therefore requesting the ICC to commission a biomechanical report into the bowler’s action in accordance with the process introduced last year.”Botha will be allowed to bowl for South Africa in this month’s triangular one-day series against Australia and Sri Lanka and until the biomechanical report has been completed. He took 1 for 26 and 1 for 77 at the SCG as Australia won by eight wickets.The report will be handled under the ICC’s standard bowling review process. Botha will now undergo independent analysis of his action by a member of the ICC’s panel of human movement specialists.Gerald Majola, chief executive officer of Cricket South Africa, expressed his disappointment at the decision to report Botha. “He has bowled at first class domestic professional level for two seasons without once being reported for an unfair action by our leading umpires, match referees and players. We hope that Johan’s promising career will continue to progress at a time when everybody in world cricket is trying to encourage the art of spin bowling in South Africa and elsewhere.”Meanwhile a South Africa team spokesman said Jacques Kallis would remain with the squad in Australia for the one-day series after checks on his elbow injury, while Nicky Boje, the left-arm spinner, and AB de Villiers, the opening batsman, will return home.The South African team was also fined by Broad for a slow over-rate on the final day of the Sydney Test, with the players docked five percent of their match fees and Graeme Smith 10 percent.

Even as the second Test at Faisalabad got underway, the debate over the pitch at Lahore, where 1089 runs were scored for just 8 wickets, continued to simmer.Imran Khan, former Pakistan captain, wrote in his column in : “During my 21 years of international cricket, I have seen almost every team prepare pitches that suit it at home – it is a legitimate home advantage that has been used right from the inception of the game. Hearing the comments of the coach [Bob Woolmer] I am increasingly convinced that the grass on the Lahore track was shaved off in order to make it placid and risk-free.”Imran added that Woolmer can be forgiven for his contention that the home team has no right to intervene and ask for a pitch that suits its strengths due to the latter’s limited exposure as a player in international cricket. He also criticized the Pakistan coach’s defensive attitude, saying that he should focus more on his team getting 20 wickets and win matches.Woolmer, however, in his own column in the wrote: “For the record, I reiterate that as captain and coach, Inzamam and I will let the pitch committee know what type of pitches we would like, but we then leave it to the groundstaff.”Talking about Pakistan’s evolution as a world-beater, Imran added that he would like to see Woolmer work on finding a suitable specialist opening partner for Salman Butt, if they are to do well in England later this year.On India’s own dilemmas, the former fast bowler felt that Rahul Dravid shouldn’t open the innings, his 410-run partnership with Virender Sehwag notwithstanding. He wrote, “The No. 3 slot is a crucial one and Dravid is a vital cog in the Indian batting line-up. Losing him early could be disastrous for the Indians.”

Brendon McCullum smashed 62 from 22 deliveries to propel Canterbury to a six-wicket win over Auckland in the inaugural Twenty20 final at Eden Park’s Outer Oval.Chasing 180, McCullum went hammer-and-tongs at the Auckland bowling attack, smashing six sixes and four fours in an opening stand of 80 with Nathan Astle. Swinging the bat at almost every delivery faced in a 25-minute stay at the crease, McCullum effectively signalled the outcome of the match – Canterbury’s fifty came up in 13 minutes and 17 deliveries – by the time he holed out to Mayu Pasupati off Paul Hitchcock.Astle, reserved in comparison to McCullum, hit 74 from 52 deliveries with 11 fours and two sixes before being run out by New Zealand team-mate Lou Vincent with victory just 2 runs away.After being inserted by Chris Harris, the Canterbury captain, Auckland’s total of 179 for 7 was centred around Scott Styris’s 62 from 32 balls, complete with five sixes and four fours. Vincent and Hitchcock also contributed with 37 and 36 respectively. Chris Cairns, who recently announced his retirement from international cricket, picked up 2 for 31 from four overs..

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Pura Cup tableJason Gillespie’s five wickets drove South Australia to a satisfying victory, but it wasn’t enough to reach the Pura Cup final. While the Redbacks needed an outright win to stay in contention for the March 24 decider against Queensland, they also required a draw in the Victoria-Western Australia game in Melbourne to allow their passage.Shortly after Gillespie’s 5 for 56 tied up the six points with a 45-run success, Victoria marked their five-wicket victory. Both New South Wales and South Australia set their sights on a win today and they locked eyes throughout the conclusion.New South Wales started the morning wanting 338 and their charge was immediately hit by Gillespie, who collected Phil Jaques lbw to his opening ball before a lifting delivery accounted for Matthew Phelps for 1. Gillespie troubled the batsmen throughout the innings, returning to pick up the dangerous pair of Dominic Thornely (41) in the second session and Brad Haddin (46) after tea to drop the Blues to 5 for 216.The opener Greg Mail steered the chase on a tense occasion with a composed 79 to go with his first-innings 141, but his side struggled to nail the big partnership that would have made the target more comfortable. Darren Lehmann’s slow bowling upset Mail’s push for twin centuries and the caught behind was a crucial dismissal.New South Wales stole a dramatic one-wicket win when the sides met in the ING Cup final last month and this match became even tighter when Paul Rofe picked up Corey Richards, Jason Krejza and Aaron Bird as the Blues lost 3 for 14 and slipped to 8 for 258. A fine Cullen Bailey catch on the long-on boundary ended Matthew Nicholson’s stay and when Gillespie picked up his fifth victim in the second-last over the Redbacks had won. However, Victoria’s victory left the home side in third spot.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and three other former office bearers of the BCCI appeared today before the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Crime Branch, which is probing alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 21.74 lakh (approx US$49000) from the World Cup 1996 account.Dalmiya, SK Nair, former BCCI secretary, Kishore Rungta and Jyoti Bajpai, both former treasurers, were accompanied by their lawyers. According to PTI, all four of them were questioned by the police till 5 pm, local time, in the absence of their lawyers.Earlier, Dalmiya and the others had petitioned the Bombay High Court for anticipatory bail claiming they apprehended arrest following the case filed against them by the BCCI on March 16. Dalmiya contended that the case was filed by his rivals with a view to pressurise, harass and humiliate him. The other office bearers told the court that they were being implicated in the case only because they were Dalmiya’s supporters.Dalmiya denied discrepancy of any nature with respect to of the World Cup 1996 (imprest) account. He said it had been audited regularly and that this account stood merged with accounts of the BCCI every year.He also said that after ceasing to be the PILCOM [Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka Committee] secretary from January 23 this year, he closed the account and handed over all records to the BCCI.

Rod Marsh, the former Australia wicketkeeper turned coach, has spoken of his excitement in taking up his new post as director of coaching at the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai. Marsh will begin his duties in September at the enormous and purpose-built Dubai Sports City.Marsh, 58, was instrumental in coaching many of Australia’s players in the 1990s, and was a prize coup for English cricket when, in 2000, he was appointed director of the ECB Academy – much to the surprise of his countrymen. Both he and another Australian, Troy Cooley, the bowling coach, have since returned home and now Marsh’s attention turns to the global game.”Imagine a place like China,” Marsh told Queensland’s . “They should be very good. Hand-eye coordination is good. Plenty of little fellas that could bat well and plenty of big blokes that could bowl well, I reckon. Who knows? In 20 or 30 years’ time, Australia might be playing Test matches in Shanghai for the Great Wall Trophy.”Marsh holds such clout as a coach, and director of coaching, that realistically the ICC had only eyes for him. He takes up his post in September at a purpose-built cricket centre, or “global university” of cricket, with such facilities as biomechanics, research and sports medicine. The cricket centre will form part of a purpose-built town, Dubai Sports City, housing some 65,000 people. Given the extreme heat in Dubai – for four months of the year, it is scarcely possible to be outside let alone play cricket – an indoor airconditioned facility will be built, large enough to house two jumbo jets.”I guess I’ve had the most experience of anyone dealing with academies,” he said. “As a consequence I got hired.” Although many countries now have their own academies, or are in the process of establishment, Marsh feels the new global academy has a role to play for senior sides and minnows alike.

“If Australia is going to England for an Ashes tour I’d like to think they might come and prepare for a week at the academy in Dubai on the way,” he said. “We’d try to prepare pitches at the facility that are similar to what they will get in England. It might be difficult but I’d hope it can be done.”If you drew a map and worked out the most central point for the cricketing world, I reckon Dubai would come pretty close. I still like to do hands-on coaching. That’s what I enjoy. The administration side of the game is something I’ve never enjoyed a hell of a lot. But I realise that part of coaching really is doing that nowadays. It’s more than just taking a guy to the nets.”

At least five children were killed by lightning while playing cricket on a school pitch near the northern Bangladesh town of Gafargaon.The children, aged between nine and ten, were killed instantly when lightning struck the pitch at Makhal Kaldhair, a village about 100km from Dhaka.”Among the dead were two brothers,” explained local police chief Abdur Rashid Shikder. “Other kids who were playing the cricket match late Sunday afternoon were unhurt but were very shocked to see their friends dead on the ground.”Lightning kills dozens of people in rural Bangladesh every year during the early summer and monsoon periods when storms sweep in from the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh`s Daily Star said that another storm at the weekend hit 45 villages and tore down 1,500 houses, uprooted 2,000 trees and damaged about 2,000 acres of farmland.

Of the many factors that went into making the all-conquering West Indies team of the ’70s and ’80s, the contribution made by the support staff is often a mere footnote. Yet, speak to the players of that era and they will invariably mention the effect that Dennis Waight, the physical trainer, and Dr Rudi Webster, the sports psychologist, had on them. Waight played a part in ensuring that the side was supremely fit; Webster helped them win the mental battles, making them the ruthless force that they eventually became.Viv Richards confirms the same in his autobiography, adding bits about how beneficial Webster was to his improvement. Richards speaks about his second international tour, one that was a hard initiation in the battlefields of Australia. “I had problems early on and scored 0, 12 and 12 in my first three innings,” Richards wrote. “It created some doubts in my own mind as to my own abilities at this rarefied level; in fact, it was panic stations.”That’s when the Webster effect came into play. “We [Webster and Richards] discovered through discussions that I wasn’t concentrating the way I should have been when I reached a certain stage of my innings. Then it was a question of discussing how I could do so and taking it on to another level, going forward step by step.” Richards did take it to the next level – getting 30, 101, 50 and 98 in his next four knocks – and it was particularly satisfying because it was made against the fearsome duo of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson.Two weeks may be a short time but the Indians will be hoping to gain as much as they can. They’ve had a chance to interact with Webster since May 25th and Greg Chappell briefly outlined the reasons for roping him in. “Dr. Webster is someone I’ve known for a long time,” he said after the first day of the warm-up game. “In my opinion, he’s one of the two best sports psychologists that I’ve experienced in all my years of playing [the other being Brisbane-based Phil Jouncey, who helps the Australian side once in a while].”He lives in Grenada, which is close by, and I thought it was a great chance to expose the players to him,” Chappell continued. “He’s been working one-on-one with the players and will continue to do so till Friday. He’s had a couple of sessions with the group. He’s very knowledgeable on West Indian cricket and on the conditions in the region. He’s too good a resource to let pass by and we approached the BCCI a few months back about using his services when we were here.”But have the results been forthcoming? “I think it is very beneficial,” Chappell added, “a number of the players have commented that they’ve found it helpful. The players are hearing the coach and the coaching staff all the time and we may or may not be saying what Dr. Webster is saying but coming from a different perspective, different voice would help the players. Sehwag spoke to Dr. Webster before the second game at Trinidad and I thought there were distinct signs that it was beneficial.”Chappell and the rest of the side will be hoping that Webster, or for that matter, anyone, can help Irfan Pathan rediscover his groove. “Pathan is struggling for confidence at the moment,” Chappell said after the Antigua batsmen had taken serious toll on Pathan. “He’s probably been trying a bit too hard, maybe he’s looking for pace. These are things you do when things are not going well. It’s important that he does the things that worked for him. On these wickets, you really don’t have any margin for error, you can’t afford to be too full or too short. You need to hit the right areas.”