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One of the things that Steve Waugh will long be famous for is his possibly apocryphal remark to Herschelle Gibbs in the 1999 World Cup that he (Gibbs) had just dropped the World Cup when he put down a simple catch off Waugh at square leg. Well, Sourav Ganguly has now revealed that Waugh tried the same tactic on Ganguly – and it backfired.In a forthcoming book called Ground Rules, excerpts from which were released in the Kolkata newspaper The Telegraph, Ganguly has written about how Waugh’s attempt at smart talk rebounded in the historic Kolkata Test of 2001.Describing the final day of that Test, Ganguly wrote: “Just before tea on the final day when they were only three wickets down, I dropped a sharp chance off Steve Waugh at backward short leg. Maybe if he had said nothing, the game would have drifted to a draw, the result that appeared to be its natural conclusion. But Waugh could not resist the chirp, ‘You just dropped the Test, mate.'”Sometimes sledging can work against you and, on this occasion, it had the effect of geeing up the Indians. Immediately after tea, Harbhajan Singh got Waugh out and Rahul Dravid gave him a sendoff from slip asking who had given away the Test match now.”Australia were 1-0 up before that Test; they ended up losing 1-2. So much for mental disintegration.

Never has a cricketer had so appropriate a surname. But let us understand that aright. Steve Waugh’s cricketing warfare has never been a matter of hatred, jingoism and senseless aggression, any more than a matter of chivalry, romance and the search for personal glory.No. Waugh’s wars have been about the most efficient possible means of despatching the enemy. They are about a clear understanding of the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses, and an equally uncluttered understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of his own side. Sometimes the results are spectacular, but that is by the way. Spectacle is a by-product of a hard head, clear vision, an analytical mind and an impersonal lust for victory.Waugh wants to defeat you personally – but nothing personal, if you see what I mean. He has that air possessed by very few, even at the highest level of sport: that sense of vocation, that urge to beat not the opposition but the limitations of your self, your game, your world. There was something of that unearthly quality in Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian racing driver. Ellen MacArthur, the British sailor, has it too.Waugh has the gift of reducing complex matters to simple ones: he sees without prejudice how best to exploit the opposition’s weakness, how best to deploy his own strengths. The approach, cold-blooded, scientific, is that of a general, rather than a character in Sir Thomas Malory.Waugh has conducted his cricketing campaigns in a mood of dispassionate ferocity. He famously remarked that sledging was “mental disintegration”; but that is not so much the aim of Waugh’s sledging as of Waugh’s cricket. The batting, bowling and fielding of his teams have all had the aim of causing mental disintegration: a moment of uncertainty that leads to self-doubt that leads to defeat. Waugh always wants defeat to be personal and complete, the better to prey on the opposition mind.And in the process, he has transformed Test cricket. Over the past four years, his Australians played in a manner that was once unthinkable. A captain is usually assessed on the way he operates his bowlers and sets his field, for it is supposed to be the fielding captain who controls the tempo of a match. Waugh is, of course, spectacularly good at all that. But it is the way he manages his batting line-up that is revolutionary.In 1990, when there had been a long-running debate about intimidatory bowling, runs suddenly flowed in county cricket through a combination of flat pitches and a different type of ball. Simon Hughes, still operating as a bowler, asked the plaintive question: “What about intimidatory batting?” Under Waugh, Australia’s batting has become the most intimidating aspect of modern cricket. The Australian batsmen seek to frighten opponents every bit as much as the fast-bowling quartet of the 1980s West Indians. They all act the same way, and they’re all coming to get you.Waugh’s Australia bat with Waugh’s dispassionate ferocity. They bat as a team, with personal glory very much a secondary matter. And above all, they bat fast. In 2001, Australia scored at 3.77 runs an over: breathtakingly fast by traditional standards. In 2002, Australia scored their Test runs at a rate of 3.99 an over. Only once in history has a team scored faster through a whole year – in 1910, Australia scored their runs at 4.47 every six balls, and there were far fewer Tests then. By comparison, England’s run-rate in 2002 was 3.37 – and that was England’s fastest rate in almost a century. Other nations are following the Australian lead, but they’re not as good at it yet.South Africa, once dour, now bat at a significantly faster tempo: the first thing they did in 2003 was to score 445 in a day against Pakistan. The sea-change in Michael Vaughan of England over the past year was in tempo. Speed is not an accident. It is a tactic. It can’t be done without very good players, but it is not the direct result of having good players. It is the result of astute, logical, cold-blooded thought on the subject of how best to win a cricket match.We traditionally think of fast scoring as something dashing and devil-maycare: Jessop, Milburn, Botham. It was merry and jaunty and beery, the way you batted if you were a bit of a lad. Fast scoring was not altogether serious – it came in the drive-for-show category. Waugh’s Australians have put it into the putt-for-dough department. For them, fast scoring is not a bonnets-over-the-windmill slogfest: it is deadly serious. It is done first to undermine the opposing bowlers, and with them the rest of the fielding side. And then it gives Australia extra time in the quest for 20 wickets: a free session for your bowlers every innings. No wonder it took them only 11 playing days to win each of the last two Ashes series.Most non-Australian cricket followers would admit when pressed that they can’t always tell one Australian batsman from another. They all wear green helmets with the Australian coat of arms above the grille, they are all good, they are all vindictively aggressive towards anything loose, they are all hugely confident. They bat as a unit and there’s always another one waiting to destroy you. A bit like the film Zulu.The wicket-keeper scores even faster than the top six and the tail bat seriously, always an aspect of a consistently victorious side. And just as the West Indian bowling ground the opposition down, softened them up and destroyed their confidence, so the Australian batting does the same thing.The influence of one-day cricket is obvious, but it is not that the Australians bat in Test matches as if they were in a one-dayer. It is rather that the thought processes of one-day cricket – the need to capitalise on every error of the opposition, the presumption that you look to make runs off every ball – have been adapted to the Test context.Hit-and-giggle? Far from it. There is no suggestion that a wicket is any less valuable to an Australian than it was before: Sydney 2003 was the first time since England’s previous visit four years earlier that they had been bowled out twice in a home Test. But wickets are seen more as team than as individual possessions. Every batting tactic, including that of speed, must be adapted to the conditions. In knuckling-down conditions, Australian batsmen will knuckle down. But send them a bad ball at any time in any context and hear it thwack into the boundary board: first over of the day, last over of the day, just after a wicket, just before tea, 50 for three or 200 for nought – bam. And don’t even think about a night-watchman. When Andy Bichel was moved up to No. 3 at Sydney in January 2003, night-watchman was the word that sprang to some commentators’ lips, but what he was actually doing was the opposite – softening the new ball.It is not so much a tactic as an emphasis: when in doubt, attack. Not for fun – as a thought-out ploy. As a team policy. Speed is not self-indulgence but duty. The idea is to win every session of every Test match, and mostly that is what Australia have been doing. If things go amiss, there is always the captain to come in later in the order. The only disappointment in Waugh’s later career is that there have been so few occasions when he has been required to do his one-man rescue act.The tactic of speed has been enthralling, but Waugh did not do it to enthral. He did it to enslave. There was an awful lot of guff talked about “brighter cricket” in the 1960s: if that was brighter cricket, what would audiences of 40 years back have made of the Australian speed machine? Waugh doesn’t employ the tactic to make cricket brighter. But – and it is an aspect of his greatness – he didn’t allow his prejudice against mere entertainment to muddle his thinking. In its intention, the Australian stroke-making is as flamboyant as an atom bomb.The definitive treatise on warfare as a science of destruction rather than a chivalric art was written by Karl von Clausewitz in Napoleonic times. It is called On War. If a similarly hard-nosed book were to be written on cricket, the same title could be used. With a small adjustment to the spelling.

New Pakistan skipper Rashid Latif praised his young charges after their second consecutive win in the four-nation Cheery Blossom Sharjah Cup.Pakistan now look certain finalists having accrued 11 points from two games after victories against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.Pakistan comfortably chased down their 224 run target against the Sri Lankans, winning with seven wickets and 2.4 overs to spare.”I am very pleased with the performance of Hafeez and Faisal as they stuck to the gameplan,” said Latif, speaking in Urdu afterwards.He expects his inexperienced side to improve: “This young side has come in from various places and have not played together much – their coordination will improve and we will avoid some of the mistakes that were made today.”His Sri Lankan counterpart, Sanath Jayasuriya, rued a weak batting display: “We needed to put more runs on the board.”But he hailed the performance of Kumar Sangakarra, who was adjudged the man of the match for his unbeaten 100 from 111 balls, his maiden ODI century.”It was very important that Kumar (Sangakkara) got runs and he batted really well today,” said Jayasuriya.Sangakkara, who was nearly dropped for the tournament after a lean World Cup, appeared grateful to be relieved of his wicket-keeping duties.”Batting and wicket-keeping are two very different jobs and, I suppose, mentally it is easier to just do one job.”

Sri Lanka’s triumph in the 1996 World Cup brought back strong memoriesof the West Indian victories of 1975 and 1979. For one thing, SriLanka, co-hosts along with India and Pakistan, did not lose a singlegame, even if Australia and the West Indies had forfeited their gamesciting security concerns.

Secondly, the Sri Lankan approach to batting very much resembled theflamboyant Caribbean style. Openers Sanath Jayasuriya and RomeshKaluwitharana in particular made nonsense of restrictive bowlingtactics and field-placings in the first 15 overs, so the slog did notcommence from the 40th over but from the very first. The apotheosis ofthis innovative strategy came in their match against Kenya at Kandy,when the first 50 was notched up in an astonishing 3.2 overs, en routeto 398 for five – still the highest-ever total in a one-dayinternational.The sixth World Cup returned to the subcontinent, and this time theformat was changed as the competition had extended to 12 participatingteams. The nine Test-playing nations were joined by three associatemembers – the United Arab Emirates, Holland and Kenya – and the 12sides were placed into two groups.Pool A comprised Australia, the West Indies, Sri Lanka, India,Zimbabwe and Kenya, while Pool B was made up of South Africa,Pakistan, New Zealand, England, the UAE and Holland. The top fourteams in each group qualified for the knock-out quarter-finals.With Australia, the West Indies, India and Sri Lanka from Pool A andSouth Africa, England, New Zealand and Pakistan from Pool B making itto the last eight, it would appear that there were few upsets in thepreliminary stage, but in fact, there were some surprising results.Few, for example, would have expected Sri Lanka to top the group,although detractors would argue that they were helped by bothAustralia and the West Indies refusing to travel to Colombo after abomb-blast rocked the capital weeks before the start of thetournament. Considering the manner in which Sri Lanka played, however,a victory over both Australia and the West Indies could not be ruledout, and this argument received certification when Sri Lanka defeatedAustralia by seven wickets in the final at Lahore.In the three remaining group matches, Sri Lanka defeated Zimbabwe bysix wickets, India by the same margin and Kenya by 144 runs. By thistime, they had emerged as the team to beat, and there was no stoppingthem in the knock-out stage either. In the quarter-final they rompedto a five-wicket victory over England with 10 overs to spare, and inthe semifinal against India at Calcutta, they were well on top whenrioters disrupted proceedings by setting the stands afire and throwingobjects on the field.The circumstances were unfortunate, especially for a traditionallycricket-loving city, and match referee Clive Lloyd awarded the matchto Sri Lanka after they had led off by scoring 251 for eight in 50overs and India were tottering at 120 for eight in 34.1 overs. In thefinal, they capped a memorable tournament by coasting to victory overAustralia, making light of what seemed to be a challenging Australiantotal of 241 for seven by racing to victory with seven wickets andnearly four overs to spare.The speed at which the Sri Lankans made their runs was quiteastonishing. At the end of the tournament, four front-line batsmen hada strike rate of over 100. Kaluwitharana’s strike-rate was 140.38 per100 balls, Jayasuriya’s 131.54, Arjuna Ranatunga’s 114.76 and Aravindade Silva’s 107.69. De Silva was in splendid form, getting 448 runswith two hundreds and two fifties at an average of 89.60. He emulatedMohinder Amarnath by nabbing the Man of the Match awards in both thesemifinals and final.Jayasuriya scored 221 runs in swashbuckling fashion, demoralising thebowlers totally. He also picked up seven wickets and was adjudged asthe Player of the Tournament. Ranatunga (241) and polished left-handerAsanka Gurusinha (307) were the other batsmen who played a notablerole in the triumph. Such was the strength of the batting that theservices of Hashan Tillekeratne and Roshan Mahanama were hardlyrequired. The bowling mainly revolved round Chaminda Vaas and MuttiahMuralitharan, and the two did their job commendably.

If Sri Lanka topping their group was a major surprise, the singlebiggest shock was provided by Kenya. The African nation pulled offarguably the biggest upset in the competition’s history by defeatingthe West Indies by 73 runs. In the face of a Kenyan total of 166, theWest Indies collapsed dramatically for 93. Kenya, however, stillfinished at the bottom of the group; following Sri Lanka wereAustralia, India and the West Indies in that order.In group B, things moved more according to prediction. South Africawon all five matches to finish on top, taking heavy toll of thebowling of the two weak teams, the UAE and Holland, and notching uptotals of 300-plus each time. Against the UAE, Gary Kirsten notched up188 not out, still the highest score in the World Cup. Pakistan, NewZealand and England followed in that order.The highlight of the quarter-finals was a high-voltage encounter atBangalore between India and Pakistan. To the jubilation of the homecrowd, India won by 39 runs. There was a minor surprise when the WestIndies got the better of hotly fancied South Africa, who buckled underpressure to lose by 19 runs at Karachi. In-form Sri Lanka were toostrong for England at Faisalabad, while Australia overcame a gallantchallenge from New Zealand at Madras.In the penultimate round, the West Indies, after having things wellunder control, went down to Australia by five runs at Mohali. In theface of an Australian total of 207 for eight in 50 overs, the WestIndies seemed to be cruising home at 165 for two. But the last eightwickets fell in a heap, and the West Indies were all out for 202 inthe last over.In the other semifinal at Calcutta, India too were in a strongposition with a score of 98 for one in reply to Sri Lanka’s 251 foreight. Thereafter it was a veritable procession of wickets, andLloyd’s decision in awarding the match to Sri Lanka following theresultant disturbances was the right one.

While the Sri Lankans predictably garnered many of the individualhonours, a few other players too left their mark. Sachin Tendulkar wasthe leading run-getter, scoring 523 runs with two hundreds and threefifties. Mark Waugh was not far behind with 484 runs, in the processbecoming the first player to get three centuries in a single WorldCup. Saeed Anwar (329), Aamir Sohail (272), Hansie Cronje (276),Andrew Hudson (275), Gary Kirsten (391) and Brian Lara (269) wereothers to be among the runs.Batsmen generally called the shots on subcontinental wickets, butthere were a few bowlers like Roger Harper (12), Damien Fleming (12),Shane Warne (12), Waqar Younis (13) and Anil Kumble (15) who bravedadverse conditions and performed commendably. The tournament alsomarked the end of Javed Miandad’s distinguished career, making him theonly cricketer to play in all the first six World Cup competitions.

West Indian hopes of qualification for the LG Abans triangular series final were dealt a cruel blow on Saturday at Asgiriya International stadium, Kandy, after a freak collision robbed them of the services of star batsman Brian Lara for the remainder of the tour and possibly the Pakistan tour that follows.Lara badly dislocated his elbow after a collision with Marvan Atapattu and had to be stretchered off the field and rushed to Kandy general hospital, reviving memories of Steve Waugh’s horrific collision with Jason Gillespie on the same ground in 1999.Without Lara, who had been batting serenely, racing to 24 off 29 balls, West Indies were unable to make full use of the best batting pitch of the tournament so far and Sri Lanka’s batsmen, led by Mahela Jaywardene who scored a 90-ball hundred, romped to an eight wicket in front of a festive capacity crowd.Lara becomes the seventh West Indian player to be ruled out of an ill-fated and unsuccessful tour. It all started with the last-minute withdrawal of Shivnarine Chanderpaul (back) before the team’s departure. Then, in Sri Lanka, Reon King (hernia), Leo Garrick (heart scare), Dinanath Ramnarine (side strain), Mervyn Dillon (disciplinary problems) and Wavell Hinds (family reasons) were all forced to leave the tour prematurely.In such circumstances West Indies poor performance is hardly surprising. They now face a straight shoot out with Zimbabwe tomorrow for a place in Wednesdays final in Colombo.Lara’s injured occurred in the eleventh over of the morning. West Indies were rattling along at six runs an over despite the early loss of Chris Gayle, trapped lbw after offering no shot.Lara pushed the ball into the off-side and called for a quick single. In a desperate effort to gain his ground he dived and collided with Atapattu, who had raced in from extra cover to attempt the run out.It was clear there was a serious problem as he wriggled on the ground in agony and waved desperately for assistance. Within minutes he was carried off the ground, with assistance from both team physios, and straight to hospital, where fears that he had also fractured his arm where at least allayed.But Lara, who returned to his best form in Sri Lanka, will probably still need two months to recover fully because of the extensive ligament damage caused by the dislocation. West Indies are due to tour Pakistan in February, leaving Lara with a tough race to regain his fitness in time.West Indies responded well, as Daren Ganga (52) scored his third consecutive half-century in the tournament and Carl Hooper celebrated his 35th birthday with a top score of 72.But West Indies though lost their way in the later stages of the innings, losing their last five wickets for 42 runs, to be bowled out for 235 in the last over of the innings.Sri Lanka started in boundaries, as Sanath Jayasuriya raced to 34 off 34 balls. However, two wickets from teenager pace bowler Jermaine Lawson pulled West Indies back into the game, with Sri Lanka on 52 for two.The game though didn’t stay evenly poised for long, as Jayawardene and Atapattu took the attack to an inexperienced bowling attack, weakened in the morning by the precautionary resting of Pedro Collins in the morning. Hooper was left needing to fiddle overs out of his part-time bowlers and the batsmen scored almost at will, hitting five sixes in the innings.Atapattu started with uncharacteristic aggression, hooking Corey Colleymore for six and cover driving Neil McGarrell for another in the left-arm spinners first over. However, after the initial boundary spurt, he calmed down to play a supporting role to Jayawardene and was 82 not out at the close.Jaywardene, dismissed on 96 on Wednesday, looked in scintillating form from the start. He hit three fours in his first fifty, which came off 51 balls, and further five fours and two sixes in the second that came off just 39 balls. He finished on 106 not out and was unsurprisingly adjudged man of the match.

Australia’s selectors have today embarked on the unexpected step of removing Matthew Hayden from the squad that will play out the remainder of the VB Series of one-day international matches against New Zealand and South Africa.Hayden has played only two matches in the series but was Australia’s outstanding player of the Test summer, scoring four centuries in the space of six matches. Though his performances in the shortened form of the game suffered a lapse on the recent tour of England, the Queensland opening batsman was also in outstanding touch upon winning a recall to Australia’s limited-overs side in India early last year.Mark Waugh, with just 16 runs behind him in the series at an average of 5.33, retains his place and is now expected to partner Adam Gilchrist at the top of the batting order for the remainder of the preliminary matches.All-rounders Ian Harvey and Andrew Symonds, who have mustered only 14 runs between them in four innings, have also continued to hold their spots.South Australian batsman Darren Lehmann’s compelling form at domestic level has meanwhile not been deemed sufficient to win him a call-up. Lehmann hammered an explosive 143 from just 130 deliveries in a Pura Cup match against New South Wales on Friday on the back of form that has won him four Man of the Match awards from seven ING Cup appearances this summer.The growing claims of emerging Tasmanian all-rounder Shane Watson have also been put on hold.The news of Hayden’s omission, meanwhile, comes after the Australians scrapped to a 27-run win over South Africa in Brisbane last night to gain their first win in four attempts in the series.A loss to the same opponent in tomorrow’s day-night encounter in Sydney would go close to ending their hopes of appearing in the finals of the competition early next month.

India’s inability to do anything right was typified in Queenstown today when no sooner had the game finished with another predictable New Zealand victory after only 25.4 overs, than the skies opened and the rain that had been threatening fell.But by that stage New Zealand had tucked away the National Bank Series by a seven-wicket margin.It is turning into the least competitive tour in New Zealand’s history of One-Day International series at home.India had no excuses to offer today. It must now be seriously wondered how much issues back at home are playing on this side’s performance. The players have denied it, but then they would.The simple fact of the matter is that India are playing well below anything like the standard that could be expected of a side with their capabilities. A full-house crowd on one of the world’s most spectacular cricket grounds couldn’t even lift the visitors.All 10 of India’s wickets fell for only 84 runs, this after the side made their best start of the series with 38 runs made by Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid who had been relieved of the wicket-keeping gloves to allow 17-year-old Parthiv Patel to make his ODI debut. They were all out for 122.They ran into Andre Adams in full cry on the occasion of his return to international cricket. He achieved a career-best five wickets for 22 runs which was also equal to the second best performance by a New Zealand bowler. He shares the spot with Matthew Hart.What was even more impressive about his effort was the quality of the wickets he took: Sehwag, Dravid, Mohammad Kaif and Dinesh Mongia in the top order.Yuvraj Singh was the only middle-order player to throw out an anchor and attempt to build his innings. But he couldn’t attract anyone to stay with him and he was eventually out attempting a big hit and being caught on the mid-wicket boundary for 25 scored off 61 balls. His was the ninth wicket to fall.It was almost inevitable that India would be out after 43.4 overs, that was equal to the longest innings they have managed in the series.Making their job that much harder was the continued superb fielding of the New Zealanders. They show such enthusiasm in the field that fielding has become another extension of their attack and it is clearly something that offers a challenge to all involved.New Zealand showed when they batted that the pitch held no hidden terrors and sensible, common sense application was rewarded with runs scored at a reasonable pace.The most encouraging thing for New Zealand was the sight of skipper Stephen Fleming getting among the runs for the first time in the one-day series.He scored 47 runs during a 59-ball 92-minute innings which saw New Zealand past the 100-run mark and safely on the way to a comfortable win. There was a freedom about the strokeplay he exhibited that has been for too long and no shot was better than the six he pulled behind backward square leg off Ajit Agarkar.It took the classiest bowler in India’s line-up, Javagal Srinath to dismiss him, courtesy of an edge to second slip Sehwag. Srinath was the only Indian to take a wicket in the match, taking all three for 35 runs off 9.4 overs.Zaheer Khan bowled only two overs having had 15 taken off his second over, 12 of them to Nathan Astle. Astle looked to be set for another blow-out but he had reached 15 when he touched a wider ball from Srinath to first slip Dravid.

Former Otago batsman Richard Hoskin has been named a selector for the side.Hoskin, who played 80 games for Otago, has recently been appointed Southland Cricket’s executive officer. During his career he scored 3573 runs for the province at 27.06.Hoskin will join coach Glenn Turner and Mike Hesson on the panel. Otago’s chief executive Graeme Elliott said: “Richard had a lengthy first-class playing career which included three years as a player-selector. We are pleased that he has applied for the position.On the list of duties for the selectors is the selection of the State Otago Volts, the Otago second XI and the Otago Development team.

Played 13, won four, lost seven, drawn two. As an end-of-year Test ledger it leaves a lot to be desired, but it also fails to tell the story of some doughty campaigns fought by England in 2001. Take out the Australians (how they would have loved to!) and it would look a whole lot brighter. But in the real world, Steve Waugh’s men are never that far down the track. By this time next year the Ashes will be ablaze once more, and on current evidence the heat looks likely to be on England once again.

It began badly in the cauldron of Galle, and ended in unseasonably sopping, Bangalore frustration. But in between came England’s greatest achievement of the year, to win a three-Test series after going one-nil down, and in Sri Lanka at that. There were early signs of Marcus Trescothick’s coming of international age (his maiden Test hundred in the Galle defeat), and the bravery in adversity of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick. Crucially, there was Nasser Hussain’s return to form in Kandy, after a wretched run of form compounded by poor umpiring decisions in Pakistan. And all the while there was Graham Thorpe, unflappably nudging and nurdling, and ultimately playing the decisive part in Colombo as he conquered heat exhaustion to ensure England’s triumph.Four series wins in a row. “Bring on the Aussies!” they started to cry, but there was a short and significant encounter first, which could we but know it, would turn England’s progress into disconcerting reverse. At the outset it seemed merely a triumphal continuation, with an innings victory over an under-cooked Pakistan at Lord’s. Gough and Caddick were rampant again, the duo now bearing reasonable comparison with Trueman and Statham. Then came Old Trafford and a true feast of a Test match, but for England the taste was ultimately sour. After competing effectively for four-and-a-half days on an excellent pitch, they contrived one of their horrible collapses. To the near-disbelief of many watching, England subsided from 201 for two to 261 all out, leaving Pakistan victors by 108 runs and England’s growing reputation for tenacity tarnished. Steve Waugh, who had promised to reopen some old scars, was sharpening his scalpel delightedly.With Hussain out injured since the Lord’s Test, Alec Stewart led England through a one-day tournament which can only have encouraged the doubts to fester. To the increasingly ludicrous strains of “The Great Escape”, batsman after batsman was snared by Australia or Pakistan, as England were trussed up and roasted in six matches out of six. Only at Bristol did they do themselves justice, as they ran Australia close before Ian Harvey clinched it with a towering six at his home from home. Although a 5-0 thrashing of Zimbabwe brought an autumnal revival to England’s one-day spirits, there is a lot to do in the year and a bit before the World Cup in South Africa.The build-up to the Ashes, already blighted by recent defeats, was further disrupted by a string of injuries. Although Hussain returned for the first Test at Edgbaston, the batting line-up was weakened there by the absence of Thorpe and Michael Vaughan. The blow to Hussain’s finger which put him out of the next two Tests with his second injury of the summer could hardly have been more sickening, either for him or for England supporters. With Ashley Giles suffering from a long-term Achilles problem, England were at no stage able to field their first-choice XI.

That said, in the face of truly magnificent Australian opposition, it is doubtful whether the outcome would have been very different. The tourists retained the Ashes at the earliest opportunity, going 3-0 up at Trent Bridge after dominating session after session. England compounded their problems by spilling several catches at Lord’s, including the awesome Adam Gilchrist, who left an indelible impression on his first Test series in England. Steve Waugh was at his most immovable, twin Mark at his most sublime. Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne again proved that they are world-beaters.But for the flash of inspiration when Mark Butcher played the innings of his life at Leeds, there would have been nothing to savour at all. But Butcher’s unbeaten 173 delighted the capacity Monday crowd, while enhancing Headingley’s reputation for unpredictability. That was as good as it got. Australia made it 4-1 by an innings at The Oval, and Michael Atherton retired without an Ashes-winning series to his credit.So if India could beat Australia at home, what on earth would they do to England, shorn as they were, for various reasons, of Atherton, Stewart, Gough and Caddick? Cricket has a wonderful way of rendering such questions facile, and it was greatly to their credit that after a disastrous start in Mohali, England had the better of the two drawn Tests that followed. Although Tendulkar twinkled as only he can, support at the other end was often brittle. Several England youngsters progressed, among them Matthew Hoggard, who bowled his heart out, and the debutants James Foster and Richard Dawson. In the end it was defeat with honour, with much of the credit due to the experienced partnership of Hussain and Duncan Fletcher.Hussain himself has pointed out that there are no easy Test series these days. New Zealand are a more than handy outfit, who will no doubt extend England in March. Before that they must measure October’s progress in Zimbabwe against successive one-day tournaments in India and New Zealand. Last summer showed England that their renaissance was more fragile than many had believed, but events since have reassured their many supporters that it is far from being snuffed out.

Kent claimed a share of the Norwich Union League first division lead after defeating relegated visitors Northamptonshire Steelbacks by 26 runs in the final match of the season in Canterbury.After posting a season’s best 284 from their 45 overs, Spitfires limited the Steelbacks to 258 for nine in reply to join Leicestershire Foxes on 46 points to ensure the title race will go to its final day next Sunday.The victory, Kent’s 10th of the campaign, was inspired by their skipper Matthew Fleming who hit a competition-best 125 and went on to claim three for 28 and a spectacular catch to scupper Northamptonshire’s stoic reply.Needing to score at more than a run-a-ball, Steelbacks were given a flying start by Graeme Swann and Michael Hussey, who posted 74 in 10 overs with Swann outscoring his Australian team-mate to play the leading innings with 61 from 44 balls.Fleming’s introduction from the Nackington Road End finally broke the opening stand when Hussey clipped a catch to short mid-wicket and, in Fleming’s third over, Swann lost his middle stump after an attempted back-foot force.Jeff Cook attempted to keep Northamptonshire in the hunt with a stylish 55 scored at a run-a-ball, but he undid all his good work with an ill judged drive to long-off where Mark Ealham took the catch.Martin Saggers then returned to run through the late order with three for 52 and ensure Kent won at the canter.Earlier, Fleming promoted himself to a pinch-hitting role to hit only the second league century of his career from 82 balls and with 15 fours.He featured in stand worth 98 with David Fulton (39), 71 with James Hockley (32) and 56 with Andrew Symonds (31) before finally running himself out for 125.Breaking the golden rule of never running on a mis-field, Fleming was left diving for his ground in vain as Hussey’s throw from deep cover ran him out by a yard.Ealham’s quick-fire 32 was icing on the Kent cake and took the target out of the Steelbacks’ reach despite their plucky reply.