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“We are very confident,” said Trinidad and Tobago team manager Colin Borde at the end of a three-day practice match at the National Cricket Centre, Balmain, Couva.The match was in preparation for the 2008 Carib Beer Challenge final against Jamaica next week (April 24-28) in Jamaica, and Borde believes the national squad are ready for the contest after a two-week break for the series between West Indies and Sri Lanka.”We trained for three days last week and the guys have been playing in this three-day match here and I think they will be ready for the final,” Borde said. “We are the defending champions and the guys know what it is all about and I am not worried …I am confident that they can get the job done.”T&T, who defeated Barbados in the final last year at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, will have to travel to Jamaica to take on this year’s Carib Beer Series champions and will be without the services of West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo.Borde said: “Denesh Ramdin will be available and we are confident we have good players who can step up (in the absence of Bravo). Darren Bravo, who scored 153 in the practice match, had a good knock and he is an exciting prospect and [Adrian] Barath had a dream debut season, but it has been rough this year, but I am sure he knows what it takes … he is a hard-working youngster and he knows what has to be done and I think he will come good.”Speaking about the rest of the team, Borde said: “Amit [Jaggernauth] is now our strike bowler and we have [Rayad] Emrit, [Richard] Kelly, Ravi Rampaul and Dave Mohammed, so I think we have some good bowling options.”Borde is also confident that captain Daren Ganga can recover from his bad patch of form this season. “He is a big-game player and I am not worried … he will step up for the occasion. He [Ganga] had a good knock today and he is in good touch…we have what it takes and we are confident of victory. The guys are going back to their clubs to continue playing more competitive cricket over the weekend. We will be ready for Jamaica.”

Essex’s injury-hit season continues with Andrew McGarry, who only rejoined the club this month, unlikely to bowl again this season after injuring his hand against Nottinghamshire.McGarry picked up the injury during his third over of the first innings attempting to field a straight drive from Mark Wagh. “An X-ray today has revealed a spiral displaced fracture of his fifth metacarpal of his right-hand,” said Essex physio Mark Thomas. “This will likely require surgery and Andrew will hopefully have this performed in London in the next day or two.”Earlier this week Essex lost the services of Mervyn Westfield and Maurice Chambers for the remainder of the season after they both suffered stress fractures of the back. However, Darren Thomas (shoulder), Alex Tudor and Tony Palladino (abdominal strains) and Jahid Ahmed (back) are returning to action and are expected to be available for first-team places soon.Captain Ronnie Irani, who has missed the last two matches, is waiting for a surgeon’s report on his right knee.

Faisalabad required only two days to defeat Karachi Harbour by an innings and two runs at the Gaddafi Stadium and boost their chances of winning the Pentangular Cup Cricket Championship.After having recovered from 168 for 7 to 312 on the opening day, Faisalabad dismissed Karachi Harbour for 144 and 166 on the second day. Shahid Nazir, the former Pakistan fast-medium bowler, picked up 4 for 34 in Karachi’s first innings, while Asad Ali took 3 for 30 in nine. In the second innings, Samiullah Niazi, the left-arm bowler, and Ahmed Hayat collected three wickets each.For Faisalabad, Mohammad Salman, the wicketkeeper, not only top-scored in the match with 71 but also kept impeccably, conceding only one bye and claiming five dismissals including two stumpings in the last few overs.Fawad Alam contributed usefully in both Karachi innings, scoring 30 off 60 balls in the first with four boundaries, and then remained unbeaten with 56 off 90 deliveries with nine fours. Opener Khalid Latif also made 56 runs in the second innings for Karachi Harbour and shared a 78-run fifth-wicket stand with Fawad.Faisalabad have ended their match programme, having won three and lost one of their four games to finish with 27 points. With table leaders National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) surrendering the first-innings lead to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in Multan, Faisalabad have gained a reprieve in the meantime.National Bank of Pakistan’s ambition to win the 2005-06 Pentangular Cup Cricket Championship received a dent as they conceded a crucial first-innings lead to Pakistan International Airlines on the second day at Multan.Thanks to some effective performances by the fast bowlers, NBP were bowled out for a modest 207 which gave PIA a lead of 35 as they had scored 242 on the opening day. By the close of play, PIA’s openers had rattled off 86 and gave their team an overall lead of 121 with all second-innings wickets in hand.After Salman Butt had been dismissed cheaply, Nasir Jamshed (36) and captain Naumanullah (27) added 60 runs for the second wicket for NBP. Then, within seven runs, NBP slipped to 69 for 5. The sixth-wicket stand added 53 runs, with Yasir Arafat scoring 31, but the score was soon poor at 123 for 7, 119 runs short of PIA’s total. Allrounder Imran Javed and Mohammad Sami then added 76 runs for the eighth wicket.Sami, who has not only been among the wickets but is also scoring useful runs since being dropped from the national squad, hit 45 off 48 balls with three fours and a six. Imran remained unbeaten with 38 off 54 deliveries with five boundaries.Umar Gul captured 4 for 64 while his new-ball partner Fazl-e-Akbar, Najaf Shah and Jannisar Khan all bagged two wickets each.Ghulam Ali, ended the day at 38 not out off 70 balls with four fours and the other PIA opener Agha Sabir scored an unbeaten 41 off 76 balls with the help of six boundaries.NBP, who still have another match in hand after this one, need to better Faisalabad’s final points tally of 27 to win the Pentangular Cup. They have currently 18 points but won’t get more than six points even if they come back and beat PIA, as they’ve already conceded the first-innings lead.

Mickey Arthur will replace Ray Jennings as South Africa’s coach. Arthur, currently in charge of Eastern Cape, will take over on a two-year deal that will take him up to the end of the 2007 World Cup.”After various recommendations Mickey was appointed and we have endorsed the process,” said Gerald Majola, the chief executive of the United Cricket Board of South Africa at a press conference in Johannesburg. The announcement brought to an end an eventful six-month tenure for Jennings, whose final contributions to South Africa’s cause were the recent 2-0 Test win and a 5-0 one-day whitewash against West Indies.Jennings, a former South African wicketkeeper during the apartheid era, took over the role from Eric Simons on a stop-gap basis at the end of a disastrous tour of Sri Lanka last October. It was not an easy baptism for Jennings – his first Test series in charge was a 1-0 defeat in India, a result followed by the 2-1 reverse at home against England. It was South Africa’s first home defeat against England in 40 years, and Jennings’s controversial coaching methods attracted adverse attention especially after they left his captain, Graeme Smith, with concussion after an accident in a warm-up session at The Wanderers.But slowly but surely he began to galvanise his team, and the results followed – a 4-1 one-day series win over England, in which he arrested a drastic run of 11 consecutive defeats against established opposition; a clean-sweep of the Zimbabweans, and then a triumphant tour of the Caribbean, at the end of which he dared the selectors to sack him.But they chose in favour of Arthur, who was picked ahead of the likes of Steve Waugh, Tom Moody and Geoff Marsh, all of whom had been linked with the job. Arthur, 37, was a first-class cricketer till four years ago and he managed 6557 runs playing for Free State, Griqualand West and South Africa A. He was in the news last month when he refused to renew the contracts of two of Eastern Cape’s most prominent players.”It’s an incredible honour and privilege and I feel that I can really step up to the breach and make a difference,” said Arthur. “I am here to create a platform and an environment for our players to perform. My long-term goal is to ultimately become the best in the world.”As for Jennings, who was unafraid to take on the team’s glamour boys, and whose preparation for the Indian tour included 4:30am wake-up calls, the association will continue as part of the elite programme to prepare players for the World Cup in 2007. Jennings will join Anton Ferreira, National Coaching Manager, and Gary Kirsten, High Performance Manager, and will undoubtedly have many inputs after an unprecedented unbeaten Caribbean campaign.Majola expressed his gratitude to Jennings, saying: “We want to thank Ray for doing the job we asked him to do as a caretaker coach, and he has agreed to remain under contract for the next stage of his activities.”We are now going to use his special talents in our High Performance Programme in preparation for the next World Cup. His experience of the West Indies conditions will be especially valuable”.

With most of the cricketing world taking a break after a hectic season, it’s unsurprising that there are few changes in the top ten lists for batsmen and bowlers. What’s interesting is that in the space of four games, Ramnaresh Sarwan has jumped 13 places to eighth spot, leapfrogging Brian Lara and Michael Bevan, who was recently omitted from the list of contracted Australian players. After a duck in the first match, Sarwan scored 216 in the next four games, with a series average of 108. Trescothick was another big achiever, jumping three spots to number six after a stunning return to form that helped England draw the one-day series. The top three, however, remained the same, and unless Trescothick does something truly spectacular during the one-dayers against New Zealand, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Sachin Tendulkar look set to hold on to their position.

Muttiah Muralitharan’s five-for against Zimbabwe took him even further ahead of the pack, with a seventeen-point gap between him and the next spot, which belongs to Chaminda Vaas. The top ten bowlers remain in their positions, except for Andrew Flintoff, who falls a spot to eighth, and Jacob Oram, who rises, by default, to number seven.

TOP Basingstoke-based bowler Shaun Udal is celebrating after winning The Gazette Sports Personality of the Year award for 2002.On Friday night, the Hampshire cricketer followed in the footsteps of Caroline Jackson and Basingstoke Bison duo Wayne Crawford and Stephen Foster when he was presented with the top honour.Udal received the glass trophy at the Apollo Hotel, which again hosted The Gazette Sports Awards. The 33-year-old spin bowler scooped the honour after topping our readers’ poll.The Gazette Sports Personality of the Year award was one of eight top honours presented at the event, which has become a successful annual fixture of the Basingstoke sporting calendar.Popular Udal – who has featured in 10 one-day internationals for England – had a great season in 2002 for the county side. It saw him retain the Hampshire players’ player award.Speaking about Friday night’s triumph, Udal said: “It was a great surprise to me. “Winning awards is always nice, but this is a very prestigious one. It means a lot to me as it is voted for by the readers of The Gazette.”Mark Jones, editor of Gazette Newspapers, paid tribute to the efforts of Basingstoke and Deane Local Sports Council members, who are the driving force behind the organisation of the event, and also thanked the many sponsors whose support is crucial to the success of the annual awards.He said: “The Gazette is delighted to be the main sponsor of these prestigious sports awards. Sporting excellence is one of the many elements which make Basingstoke a great town and great borough and The Gazette Sports Awards recognise the outstanding contribution made by many people in the field of local sport.”The audience were treated to a splendid three-course meal by the Apollo Hotel as part of its major and important role as the host of the prestigious awards.The main guest of the evening was Manchester Commonwealth Games diving gold medallist Pete Waterfield.He told the audience of top sportsmen and sportswomen to follow their dreams, as he had done, and showed people his gold medal to illustrate what heights can be reached.

The mystery surrounding the death of Tertius Bosch deepened on Wednesday amid claims that early indications from a post mortem on the former South African fast bowler’s body show that he might have been poisoned.Bosch, who took the new ball in South Africa’s first post-isolation Test match against the West Indies in Barbados in 1992, died in February last year aged 34, apparently from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a debilitating wasting disease, after a long illness.At the time Bosch’s death was seen as a tragedy involving a popular sportsman and his young family. It now transpires, however, that even before Bosch died rumours had surfaced that there might be more to his illness that met the eye.As a result of these rumours, Bosch’s sister Rita van Wetten and her brother Toon Bosch hired a private investigator, Hennie Els, to examine the financial affairs of Bosch, a dentist, and the circumstances of his death.According to the Durban morning newspaper The Mercury, Els uncovered various financial irregularities as well as a second will which disinherited Bosch’s widow, Karen-Anne. Els’s investigations led to Van Wetten requesting that Bosch’s body be exhumed and a post mortem conducted. Karen-Anne agreed to the exhumation at the end of last week and the body was exhumed this week.It is at this point that the story takes a macabre twist. The specialist forensic pathologist who conducted the post mortem, Dr Reggie Perumal,is quoted in The Mercury as saying: “The body had been embalmed and was beautifully preserved, so I got really good organs, hair and fingernail specimens.”The clinical presentation was one which supported poisoning … His skin was dark with white spots, he had lost his hair and there were signs of kidney dysfunction.”I was testing for various forms of heavy metal poisoning, including amalgam lead (used in dentistry), the toxic component of which is mercury.”Dr Perumal also remarked that it was unusual for a body to be embalmed. “Why someone would want to delay the natural decaying process, I can’t say … But some people believe that the chemicals in embalming fluid remove traces of poison,” The Mercury quotes him as saying.Samples from Bosch’s body have been sent for laboratory inspection and the results will be passed on to Bosch’s family and to the police.Even more bizarrely, however, a relationship between Karen-Anne and attorney Henr Selzer has come to light. Selzer was the executor of Bosch’s first will and the relationship ended last week but not before Selzer was found to be suffering from symptoms similar to those that afflicted Bosch.Again The Mercury quotes Dr Perumal: "He (Selzer) appears to have similar symptoms to those of Dr Bosch. I will be conducting tests on him to look for similar poisons in his body.”The matter is further clouded by so far unsubstantiated hints of money-laundering and other extra-marital affairs. It has left a South African cricket public, which might have been thought to be inured to further shocks after the match-fixing scandal and an assortment of rows, aghast.Tall, strong and curly-haired, Bosch was capable of genuine pace during a first-class career with Northern Transvaal and Natal between 1986/87 and 1997/98. He played in only a single Test match, taking three wickets, and two one-day internationals.He was far more successful at first-class level, taking 210 wickets at 27,56, but it was always felt that he lacked killer instinct. Genial and well-liked, Bosch was regarded as simply too nice a guy to consistently strike fear into batsmens’ hearts.

Colombo Cricket Club secured an overwhelming victory over Matara Sports Club at Maitland Crescent today to keep alive their hopes of qualification to the semi finals.Matara Sports Club have had a wretched tournament to date and have won just one game from their six matches. They have struggled in the batting and today was no different. CCC won the toss and had no hesitation in asking the Southern Province side to bat first.Matara were soon in trouble losing their first wicket with just 2 runs on the board. Nadiranga Chinthaka then steadied the innings with 25 from 57 balls. However, he was given no support at the other end and eventually proved to be Matara’s top scorer.The CCC bowlers all performed well and the opening attack of Indika Gallage and Mario Villavarayan proved particularly difficult to score off. Nisitha Rupasinghe was the highest wicket taker, picking up three for 13 from his seven overs.In reply, the CC batsmen scored the runs with ease and lost just one wicket in the process. Damitha Hunukumbura led the way with a 45 from 73 balls that included one four and six. He was well supported by Michael Vandort who scored an unbeaten 31 from 47 deliveries.

Cricket South Africa has agreed to a request from the team management that all members of the Test squad preparing for the tour of India should be rested for the semi-finals and final of the MTN Domestic Championship. The semi-finals are to be played this Friday and Sunday, with the final next Wednesday (March 19).Exceptions will be made in the cases of JP Duminy and Charl Langeveldt as neither has played any Test cricket this summer. The same applies to Makhaya Ntini, who has only played in a limited number of ODIs this season, and Ashwell Prince, who is not a member of the ODI squad. Contracted players who have not been chosen for the India series will all be available for their franchises.In effect, this means that both Ntini and Robin Peterson, who is not a contracted player and has only played one Test in 2007-08, can turn out for the Warriors in Friday’s MTN semi-final against the Eagles at St. George’s.The Cape Cobras will be able to call up Prince, Duminy, Langeveldt and Herschelle Gibbs for their semi-final against the Titans at SuperSport Park, while the Titans will have Andre Nel and Albie Morkel at their disposal.

The arbitration panel in the ongoing saga between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) has told the board to hand over the documents to help it decide on the contracts row.Sir David Simmons, the chairman of the panel, has given the WICB up to 10.30am today (Tuesday) to submit its case and supporting documents.”If this time frame is not kept, the panel may have to consider proceeding to determine the issue on such documents as it has at the time,” Simmons said.Those comments cast doubt on assertions made last week by Bruce Aanensen, the new WICB secretary, who claimed all documentation had been submitted six days ago.