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Tributes have been coming in, following the shock news of the death of Charles Knott, the former Hampshire cricketer and chairman, aged 88.Former Hampshire captain Robin Smith was shocked to hear of the death of Charlie Knott when I spoke to him at his Cape Town hotel this evening.Robin, who is hosting a touring party at the Cricket World Cup, was saddened by the passing of the man who invited him to join Hampshire way back in 1981.”I remember feeling very nervous when my brother Chris and I went to his home in Highfield,” said Robin. “He made us feel very much at home however, and put us both at ease.”Charlie was a legend at Hampshire, and although very tough with us if we made mistakes, he was also a good friend to all the players.”Robin continued, “One of the sad tasks that he had to perform was telling a player, sometimes just a youngster, that the club were not offering a new contract. He did that with feeling, something he did not enjoy, but was necessary.”I offer Iris, and his two daughters Gaye and Dawn my deepest sympathies.”County Director of Cricket Tim Tremlett remembers seeing the name of Charles Knott on the honours board at Taunton’s College, marking the occasion when he took a hat-trick in the Gentlemen v Players fixture in 1950.”Mr Knott was the cricket chairman when I joined the staff in the summer of 1975, and he offered a lot of advise to me, which I listened to as he was a tremendous bowler in his own right for Hampshire.”And it was that record for the county that gained him a lot of respect, so much so that he was Cricket Chairman for 21 years and was influential in bringing Barry Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts and the Smith brothers to Hampshire.”He reminises also about a game of snooker he played against Charles and professional standard partner Jim Bailey with Kevan James at the Old Yacht Club across the road from the Northlands Road ground.”They took us to the cleaners. We got absolutely hammered!”He has nearly 50 years of friendship and association with another legendary Hampshire spin bowler as well. Peter Sainsbury looks back with great happiness at the time he spent with him.”We go back to when I started on the ground – that is how long ago it was,” he said. “He was still playing when I joined the staff, although I never actually played with him.”But he was chairman of cricket when I played and when I coached and he was a very fair man. In fact, we were good pals – you cannot say that too often about Chairmans of Cricket and coaches these days!”It is terribly sad to lose Mr Knott, who was a fine amateur bowler in his day and a lovely man. He will be greatly missed.”He had a smile on his face though when going back to the early part of the 1952 season when the team and staff had their picture taken. “It was the first ever picture I had taken with the team, but I had to borrow his sweater as I did not have one.”We didn’t get sweaters until we were well established then.”

In the best match of the tournament so far, Zimbabwe won a battle of nerves to beat Sri Lanka by four wickets and claim a place in the final of the Sharjah Cup. It was Zimbabwe’s first win over Sri Lanka for three years.Grant Flower, with his 37th one-day half-century, calmly helped finish the good work that Zimbabwe accomplished in the field – after being asked to bowl first, they restricted Sri Lanka to 193. With Heath Streak for company, Flower nursed Zimbabwe to their target after Sri Lanka grabbed three wickets for nine runs to reduce them from a comfortable 158 for 3 to a shaky 167 for 6.Sri Lanka’s slow bowlers kept their team in the battle, grabbing important wickets as fortunes swung to and fro. Under pressure in only his second ODI, the 20-year-old legspinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi grabbed 3 for 37 and was easily Sri Lanka’s biggest gain in a match that will be Sanath Jayasuriya’s last as captain.Lokuarachchi has a quick run-up and arm action, and the ball that get rid of Sean Ervine for a duck was one of the highlights of the match. Well flighted, it slanted across the left-hander, drew him forward, landed in the bowlers’ footmarks, beat the batsman as he prodded tentatively, and turned late and sharply to hit the stumps.Zimbabwe had the edge at the halfway stage of their innings, despite playing around with their batting order. Tatenda Taibu joined Flower at the fall of the third wicket, after Gavin Rennie (26) nicked Lokuarachchi to Prasanna Jayawardene behind the stumps. But Taibu, showing no nervousness, struck a breezy 31 and helped put on a crucial 55 runs for the fourth wicket with Flower.Their partnership helped Zimbabwe consolidate after Craig Wishart and Doug Marillier’s early fireworks. They rattled up 26 runs in the first three overs, with ten coming in the first over from a wayward Charitha Buddhika. They put on 36 before Wishart (14) shouldered arms to an incutter from Prabath Nissanka and watched in dismay as it crashed into his stumps.Jayasuriya introduced Kumar Dharmasena before Muttiah Muralitharan, and he slowed the Zimbabwean charge, bowling faster and flatter through the air, and conceded just seven runs in his first five overs. When Muralitharan did come on, he struck in his first over to dispose of Marillier (32) with a bat-pad catch that Marillier suggested had only involved the pad. But that was Murali’s only wicket, and it made a telling difference in the final outcome.Earlier Streak and Andy Blignaut, with three wickets apiece, led a spirited Zimbabwean effort in the field. Sri Lanka were strangled by a steady medium-pace attack, good catching and attacking captaincy. Five Sri Lankan batsmen passed 20, but the top-score was Hashan Tillekeratne’s 31.Sri Lanka’s problems began with the second ball of the match. Streak angled one across Jayasuriya, induced an inside-edge and saw the bails fly. Jayasuriya walked off with a duck, a sad return for his 300th one-day international. He is the sixth person to play as many.Marvan Atapattu briefly counter-attacked, easing the pressure with six well-struck boundaries. Then Dion Ebrahim prompted a change of script, catching Avishka Gunawardene (24) off Blignaut with a full-length dive at cover, plucking the ball while still airborne.Kumar Sangakkara, with hundreds in his last two innings, marched in with the score at 51 for 2. He was promptly handed another rescue mission when Atapattu (29) chased Ervine’s first ball and nicked it to Taibu (58 for 3).But Sangakkara (25) flopped when it really mattered. Just when Sri Lanka looked set on the road to recovery, he pulled a short ball from Raymond Price to a running Grant Flower on the midwicket boundary (106 for 4).Streak returned and soon removed Dharmasena (19), who popped an easy catch to Rennie. Four quick wickets followed, for just ten runs. Nissanka helped add 25 for the last wicket, but it was all too little and too late. Zimbabwe would sweep past the modest target, into the final.

It was perhaps inevitable after the previous three days, that Somerset would win this Frizzell County Championship match at The Rose Bowl, however it was not before a Hampshire fight back and a scare for Somerset that the result was achieved well into the evening session.Derek Kenway’s previous days efforts lasted just one ball on the fourth day as he played a thin edge off Nixon McLean. He had battled for 6 hours, but sadly left without that elusive century. Chris Tremlett batting with a runner (Will Kendall) played some timely shots as he and Shaun Udal added some impetus to the mornings play. Udal however, drove at Simon Francis to Keith Dutch at mid-off, and then Alan Mullally lasted 5 balls before he was trapped by the big West Indian McLean.James Bruce held his end well as Tremlett continued to foil the Somerset bowlers, his grandfather Maurice would have been proud of some of his driving. All good things must come to an end, as McLean bowled the tall batsman for 43 five minutes before lunch, just after Hampshire had reached the 300 mark.Set 128 for victory, the visitors struggled against the pace of Mullally and Mascarenhas and it was the latter that dismissed the opening batsmen for just 20 runs. Jamie Cox the first innings hero then fell to the admirable James Bruce, trapping him well in front lbw, and then he enticed the Somerset skipper to edge to the wicket-keeper.At 59 for 4, Hampshire were perhaps sniffing at an unlikely victory, but a vital dropped catch, shortly after the fourth wicket fell was probably the defining moment. James Bryant and Ian Blackwell then gathered their thoughts, the sun came out making batting easier and the pair took their side to victory.After four drawn matches, this was Hampshire’s first Championship defeat of the season, and missing Wasim Akram (tonsillitis) and the injured Tremlett proved costly.Chris Tremlett had a scan on his right foot yesterday and as a result will miss at least the next three weeks.

India’s loss was South Africa’s gain when Adrian le Roux accepted thejob as fitness trainer for the South African squad last week – an irony not lost on the man himself who was surplus to national requirements just 16 months ago.Le Roux was snapped up by the touring Indian team when they played Free State two summers ago and enjoyed himself so much he says he agonised about leaving the team in the lurch.”It wasn’t an easy decision because of how well I had got on with the Indian team,” said Le Roux. “It was an amazing experience being part of the set up. I’m extremely grateful to the Indian team for allowing me to be a part of their squad because I learned so much in my time there – and also made a lot of friends.”In the end though, the lure of patriotic duty was just too strong. “This was an opportunity I could not refuse. The chance to serve your own country doesn’t come along for everyone so I had to say ‘yes’.”Le Roux’s time with the Indians was no holiday, however, and he became widely credited with becoming the first man ever to train an Indian team to full fitness – a notion the man himself is keen to dispel.”I believe my success with the Indian team has been greatly exaggerated. Obviously I’d like to think I made an impression and was able to help but they were in pretty good shape when I arrived. They are not amateurs!”But clearly he did make an impression and the likes of Rahul Dravid and Javagal Srinath were not shy to say so.”I basically tried to introduce a culture of fitness and training so that the players accepted it as a normal part of their day. I’m not sure the Indian team had a history of that before. I asked them to accept that being a professional sportsman, particularly a cricketer, meant daily training. There was some aerobic work but also a lot on flexibility and injury prevension. It’s hard work staying in good shape!”So if Sachin Tendulkar called for some advice now that Le Roux isemployed by the opposition, would there be a conflict of interests? The answer is given with a laugh but the content is completely committed: “If Sachin called me for some advice I wouldn’t hesitate for a second! I’m a professional and so is he and there’s no problem with two professionals exchanging advice. It would be an honour.”

BAT Sports remain top of the ECB Southern Electric Premier League after forcing a tame draw against arch championship rivals Havant.But their lead has been trimmed to a mere five points by South Wilts, who beat Liphook & Ripsley by four wickets at Bemerton to cement themselves firmly into contention after the seventh round of fixtures.BAT travel to Salisbury for a potentially crucial all-day game in the 18-match calendar on Saturday week, June 28.The eagerly awaited clash between the two Premier powermen of the past three seasons fizzled out into a damp squibb after the Havant, the defending champions, batted the visitors out of the game with a massive 288-7 in 66 overs.No team has ever scored that many batting second in the SPL and, with only 56 overs bowled back at them, BAT were in no mood to give their biggest rivals an inch.They were content to play out time at 179-5, with Damian Shirazi batting almost three hours for 82 not out.The stalemate was largely due to the excellence of the Havant Park strip, on which bowlers toiled in the sun to prise out just 12 wickets at a cost of 467 runs.Havant’s traditional pitches are notoriously slow and low, but this strip – one of four relaid two winters ago – was an absolute belter."Our players were a bit surprised to be playing on a much harder than normal strip, but it played superbly and the batsmen thrived on it," said Havant team manager Mark Readman."We didn’t get our runs as quick as we might have liked, simply because of a lull in the scoring caused by wickets falling at the wrong time late in the innings."That prevented us from declaring before our 66 over allocation was complete," he added.Adrift in the honours race after having lost to South Wilts a fortnight ago and been held to a draw at Liphook last week, Havant needed to apply the pressure from the start.They began on a positive note, with Damian Carson (22) and left-hander Simon Barnard seeing off the perils of the new ball during a 48-run opening stand.Carson fell to the first ball Mark Page bowled, but his departure opened the door for Richard Hindley to play arguably his best Premier League innings.Hindley, who spent the winter playing and coaching in New South Wales, looked in immaculate form, punching drives through the covers and playing sweetly off his legs.By lunch, he had almost caught up the equally impressive Barnard, who completed his second consecutive half-century just before the interval.The pair made hay immediately after the break, with Dan Goldstraw – BAT’s eight-wicket hero against Calmore Sports – being smacked for 22 runs off one remarkable over.Barnard struck the first ball for three and then Hindley thumped four boundaries in succession – his straight on-drive, which rocketed to the long-on rope, particularly eye-catching.The two left-handers added a quality 145 runs for the second wicket before Barnard (73) was trapped in front by Terry Rawlins at 193-2.Apart from a couple of blemishes, BAT kept their shape well in the field and when Hindley eventually fell for 93 – his innings included 12 fours (and an over-thrown six) – they sensed some bowling bonus points were on the table.An untimely stutter – four wickets fell for 28 runs – cost the champions the opportunity of a declaration.Paul Gover, in hindsight probably overcautious, chipped an unbeaten 32 and Graham Benton struck an aerial 18, as 30 runs came off the final two overs.It was certainly entertaining to watch, but Havant’s near four-hour sojourn of the crease ultimately gobbled up too much of the playing time for there to be a positive outcome.BAT, with an hour less batting time, needed to be 100 without loss if they were to offer a serious challenge.They weren’t – Australian Matt Cox, bowling a tight off-spin line, removing Neil Parlane and Richard Kenway to have BAT an uncertain 50-2.From that point on, it was simply a case of whether could prise MCC Young Cricketer Damian Shirazi from the crease.They seldom looked like achieving their aim and, with David Banks (50) playing a selection of good shots, BAT’s reply reached 125-3 before the wicketkeeper was neatly snapped up at short-leg.Shirazi’s main aim was to frustrate Havant and glean a second batting point for BAT at 175.He finished with a somewhat tedious 82 not out, but did the job BAT required of him as time was called with the visitors 179-5 in ten less overs than Havant bowled to them.

On the first day of this match, the wicket had a green look to it that suggested it might have offered something to the bowlers. On the third day, Somerset racked up the highest score against Hampshire in the County Championship since 1909!But, the Somerset supporters have endured as tough a season as their Hampshire counterparts and they were still unhappy despite watching Ian Blackwell smash a career best 189 (211 balls, 32 fours and two sixes) as their side declared on a mammoth 705-9.For, once again on the picturesque Taunton ground, the most likely result tomorrow, barring a batting collapse that is by no means a far-removed hope when it comes to Hampshire, is a dull if high-scoring draw.Resuming on 338-4, Tom Webley (59), Blackwell, Aaron Laraman (52) and Rob Turner (67 not out) all enjoyed themselves on the placid wicket as the Hampshire bowlers all toiled – and, for what must be a record, all five front line bowlers conceded a century of runs. Only Chris Tremlett with four wickets came away with any kind of satisfaction.It was another desperately hard day in the field for Hampshire as Somerset continued unrepentantly to the tune of 367 runs in only 72 overs.Bad light prevented an immediate response to the Hampshire second innings but it did brighten sufficiently for eight balls to be bowled from which James Adams hit a four.Still 306 runs behind, it is going to take a good batting performance to save the game. And on this wicket, it should be achieved. It should!

Roughly 150 cricket fans have staged a demonstration in Karachi, to protest against their city’s exclusion from the itinerary for South Africa’s tour of Pakistan, which gets underway next week.Karachi, in the south of Pakistan, and Peshawar, near the Afghanistan border in the north-west, have both been dropped at South Africa’s request, after concerns about security. The demonstrators responded with placards reading: “Karachiites are cricket crazy, not terrorists”, “We want Pakistan-South Africa match in Karachi” and “Don’t take away Karachi as international venue.””People in Karachi are passionate about the game of cricket,” said Nawab Mirza, a local member of Parliament. "They feel hugely deprived not to see South Africa play here." Karachi staged its first one-day international in 16 months last month, when Bangladesh were the visitors. But a recent bomb blast raised fears of a repeat of the situation in May last year, when New Zealand were forced to evacuate their hotel – and abandon their tour – after an explosion killed 15 people.”This is injustice to the people of Karachi and we demand South African captain Graeme Smith brings his team to the city,” said the president of Karachi City Cricket Association, Muneer Hussain. “We would make sure they play here without any trouble.”But Smith himself was unsympathetic to Karachi’s demands. “Excuse me for being blunt," he wrote in his column for The Cape Times newspaper, "but I can’t help thinking that a bomb intended for someone else will hurt just as much as one intended for you. To say the bomb in Karachi wasn’t serious because it was a business conflict misses the point completely. The question should be about the general stability of a region.”The South Africans arrive in Lahore on Tuesday, where they will play a one-day game against City Nazim XI on October 1.

A hamstring strain threatens to spoil Chris Cairns’s comeback plans. Cairns, who bowled for the first time in an ODI since a World Cup match against Zimbabwe in March this year, limped off after sending down just three overs in the rain-hit match against India at Chennai on Wednesday. Cairns bowled with a fair amount of pace, taking the wicket of Virender Sehwag with the last ball of his first over, and Stephen Fleming was clearly disappointed with the latest injury concern.”It’s a shame and it’s the most frustrating for Cairnsy. What he was delivering was pretty good, and he’s been pretty excited about getting out there,” Fleming said. “We feel for him but hopefully it’s not too bad. He’s icing it at the moment and we’ll assess it tomorrow.”Cairns has five more days to recover, though: New Zealand’s next match in the tournament is on October 29, against Australia at Faridabad.

1 v England, Kolkata, 1987 World Cup final
In the first of his four World Cups, Waugh showed the first signs of his ice-cold nerve when he bowled the penultimate over of the match with England requiring 19 to win. Waugh only gave away two, and dismissed Phillip DeFreitas as well, and Australia lifted the trophy.2 v England, Headingley, 1989
The wait was finally over. After 27 attempts and two scores in the nineties came the first of many Test centuries, and the first of ten against England. In the first Test of the 1989 Ashes series, Waugh pummelled 177 not out and put on over 100 with Dean Jones, as the Aussies batted England out of the match. Australia went on to win by 210 runs. 3 v England, Lord’s, 1989
Just to let everyone know he had arrived on the scene, Waugh scored another big unbeaten century in the very next match, and at Lord’s too. Coming in after a solid start from the top order, Waugh went on to make 152 not out, and added 130 with Geoff Lawson to give Australia an unbeatable advantage. Just to really rub it in, he hit the winning runs in their six-wicket victory on their way to an 4-0 Ashes win, something which few people expected. England didn’t get him out in that series until the third Test.4 v South Africa, Adelaide, 1993-94
Just as Waugh established a healthy appetite for English bowling, he liked the South Africans too. In his first Test against them, coming back from injury and with Australia one down in the series, he masterminded a comfortable victory with 164 in the first innings, and then took 4 for 26 as South Africa went down by 191 runs. That was also the game in which Allan Border became the first man to exceed 11,000 Test runs, Ian Healy made his 200th dismissal, and Shane Warne took his 100th wicket – but Waugh still picked up the Man of the Match award. 5 v West Indies, Kingston, 1994-95
Exceptional, even by Waugh’s stratospheric standards. The four-Test series against West Indies was delicately poised at 1-1, so all to play for in the decider – and Waugh played it just right. After West Indies had posted a respectable 265, Waugh and his twin put on a dazzling 231 together. Mark eventually fell for 126, but Steve made it to his first and only Test double-century (to date, anyway). Australia racked up 531, and West Indies, who had not lost a series for 15 years, succumbed to a humbling innings-and-53-run drubbing, a result which changed the world order forever.6 v South Africa, Johannesburg, 1996-97
Another big win, another hundred, and another big partnership. After the bowlers had let South Africa off the hook from 165 for 6 to reach 302, Waugh wasn’t in such generous mood and, this time with Greg Blewett, batted throughout the third day and ground down the South African attack with a dogged 160 and a monster stand of 385. Add to that the important wicket of Hansie Cronje in the second innings, and it was a good few days’ work as Australia ran out winners by an innings and 196. 7 v England, Old Trafford, 1997
Yes, back to England, who again found themselves on the wrong end of Waugh’s wand, this time in the 1997 Ashes. England at this point were 1-0 up in the series, but surely it couldn’t last – and thanks to two epic hundreds from Waugh, it didn’t. In a low-scoring match, he gritted out 108 in the first innings, just under half of the team total, and then put the match beyond England with an equally dogged 116 in the second. England lost by 268 runs, and went on to lose the series 3-2. 8 v South Africa, World Cup, 1999
This was the match before the famous one, but if it wasn’t for Waugh then that thrilling semi-final may never have happened. In their previous tussle in the Super Sixes, South Africa again appeared to have everything under control with Australia struggling on 174 for 7 in pursuit of 272 … but, you guessed it, the captain game good. Waugh calculated a perfectly paced knock of 120 off 110 balls, and was famously dropped by Herschelle Gibbs on 56. Whether or not Waugh really muttered that line about dropping the World Cup may never be known, but the importance of that century in Australia’s winning campaign will never be underestimated.9 v England, The Oval, 2001
Only a fool would play with a dodgy leg, wouldn’t he? After tearing a muscle in his leg at the Trent Bridge Test three weeks earlier, Waugh knew that the The Oval game would be his last in England – and nothing was going to stop him playing in it. Coming in at 292 for 2, Waugh could have been forgiven for taking it a bit easy, but not a bit of it. He could hardly run, so he just smacked boundaries – 21 fours and a six – instead. The only sniff England had of getting him out was when he hobbled for a single on 99, but he made it – and even managed a smile afterwards. 10 v England, Sydney, 2002-03
His last game against the old enemy, and it wouldn’t have been right if he hadn’t gone out in style – and what style. After a subdued series, and with the press calling for his head, Waugh bailed the Aussies out one last time against the Poms, and as a balmy evening draw on, he edged closer and closer to his century. And it came to pass that with one ball of the day to go, he had 98 not out … and punched Richard Dawson, the offspinner, through the covers to spark the biggest celebrations the SCG, his home ground, had witnessed for yonks. Even Waugh, normally the iciest of icemen, showed his appreciation of the historic moment, one that gleams brightly in his bulging treasure chest.

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has given a broad hint that it will make a decision over next autumn’s planned tour of Zimbabwe when its management board meets on February 25. And, more importantly, it has indicated that it has shifted from its policy of only being concerned about cricketing issues, and is now prepared to consider "political and moral arguments".Reacting to weekend speculation over the future of the tour, Tim Lamb, the ECB’s chief executive, said that the tour was still on at the moment but that, "We will make a decision at the right time, for the right reasons and with the right people making that decision. We are well aware of the pressure that we will come under. It’s going to be a question of balancing the political and moral argument with our obligations to the international fraternity.”During the World Cup fiasco which culminated in England boycotting their match in Harare, but only after seemingly endless meetings and changes of heart, the official stance was that only the safety of the tour party mattered. At the time, Lamb said: "The ECB is not a political body and we do not take decisions on that basis. We do not believe that it is our role to make subjective moral judgements about the various regimes in the different cricket-playing nations. These are matters for elected Governments to consider and take a decisive and early lead. They are not matters for sports administrators."The change makes it almost certain that the tour will be cancelled. The political situation in Zimbabwe has continued to deteriorate under Robert Mugabe, repression of anyone opposed to the government has become increasingly brutal, and earlier this month Zimbabwe withdraw from the Commonwealth.”We are that much wiser now than we were then,” Lamb admitted. “But that is not to say this will be an easy decision. We still have our obligations to the ICC and the international community.”Wisden Comment by Martin Williamson
The ECB’s change of heart is not because it has suddenly become a more moral organisation. What it has done is realise that it’s sport-and-politics-don’t-mix line adopted during the World Cup just doesn’t wash, with either the public or, far more importantly, sponsors.Indecisive leadership a and total failure to tackle the issue until it was too late left the ECB looking weak and money-orientated back in March. The cost, image aside, was crippling to an English game hardly awash with money. The full ramifications have yet to be felt, and the ICC are still holding over £2 million as a result of the last-minute cancellation of the match in Harare.Perhaps the one thing that influenced the ECB the most was the broad hint by Lord MacLaurin, once chairman of the ECB and now heading Vodafone, it’s largest sponsor, that if England went to Zimbabwe then they could kiss Vodafone’s £3 million-a-year investment goodbye. Another factor is that, unlike the World Cup, the tour is not an ICC event, and so financial penalties for cancellation are unlikely.Cynical? Perhaps. But in cricket, it’s all about the bottom line.