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It was a tale of two sets of nerves at the post-match press conference: Stuart MacGill’s as he returned to Test cricket after ten months away and Shane Watson’s on debut. MacGill calmed his with the wicket of Younis Khan, after starting with 0 for 43 from six overs, and took four more on the way to 5 for 87. Stumbling through his first delivery, Watson bowled in support of themain men and finished with 0 for 28 from 10 overs:

Stuart MacGill
On the slow start to his comeback
I definitely didn’t start the way I wanted, but I think I can be forgiven for being a little nervous – I haven’t played [Test cricket] in a long time. As calm as I try to be, the first Test back each time seems to get me. I knew once I’d taken a wicket it would change, and fortunately it did.On his performance
Because I’d been bowling well I expected it to happen, and [I knew] I’d show everybody what I’ve got. But I’m happy, I wasn’t sure at the end whether the weather was getting cold or I was getting tingles.On the difference when he started getting wickets
When I was keen I was rushing through my action, and that was where the short balls outside off stump came from. Fortunately, at my age, I knew that and knewthere was nothing to panic about.On the satisfaction of five wickets
It’s important to maintain the same sense of satisfaction no matter what stage of your career. A five-for in a run of 10 or 12 Tests is every bit – sometimes more – important than your first one back. Because there’s the element of nerves you feel like it’s more important.On the need for a strong return
There were thoughts running through my mind that if I didn’t get wickets in this game you guys would all say “That’s it, there’s never going to be twolegspinners playing again in the same match.”On his confidence levelsI’ve been bowling so well this season that it couldn’t go wrong in a day, and it would happen at some stage. It was almost like being on the couch – workingthrough it myself, and it started to come right before tea. To get the first wicket is a very important moment.On bowling with Warne
I’ve said it enough now for somebody to believe me. I really don’t mind who I bowl with at the other end. In a team that is so talented it’s important not to let them down. When Warney came back on I was doing my job and we both looked like getting wickets.On when he could play next
Shane’s [Watson] emergence is going to help me play more Test cricket. It may predominantly be on turning pitches, but there’s also a possibility that teams who are perceived to play wrist-spin poorly may also get the same treatment. There’s a perception out there that New Zealand and England have deficiencies in that area.On the pitch
Batting tomorrow will be good, but as the game goes on there will be less and less bounce. It will be a little bit more difficult to score once the ball has lost its shine. I expect to do a lot of bowling in the second innings.On the Pakistani batting
While there were obviously some shots that weren’t great, it’s a wicket that’s hard to come in and bat on. You feel an obligation to keep the scoreboard going. I’m reluctant to be too critical, because I’ve seen it in other teams that I’ve played against this season.

Shane Watson
On his first-day nerves
It’s been a very nervous day, but after I got my nerves out of the way and fell over for my first ball I felt all right. I was happy with the way the ball come out, and got a bit of confidence in the field.On his bowling
I felt like I fulfilled my role and bowled fairly tight at times. I have to keep the pressure at my end so the other guys can keep plugging away.On bowling in a Test
The great thing is I’ve had a great start with my one-day career and bowling in front of those big crowds. I felt quite comfortable at the start bowlingwith the big crowds around me.On preparing to bat
I’ll probably be a bit more nervous when I bat, mainly because it’s two against 11. I look forward to getting a chance. I don’t know where I’ll bat, probably No. 6 or 7, it doesn’t worry me.On being picked ahead of Michael Kasprowicz
All I can do is play my best. It’s disappointing he’s missed out because he’s been bowling so well. I can’t really worry about those pressures because I’d goinsane.

Scorecard

Needing only 104 for victory when the final day began, New South Wales crushed New Zealand on their way to a nine-wicket victory. It was a tough start for a team that had publicly admitted that the Australian campaign would be tougher than the last time they toured. Phil Jaques remained unbeaten on 70, and Matthew Phelps was not out on 39 when the winning runs were scored.Jacob Oram had Greg Mail caught in the day’s third over for 13, but from then on Jaques and Phelps added runs at an easy pace. New Zealand’s bowlers were economical, but could not get breakthroughs, adding to the feeling in Australia that their attack is ineffective.This heavy defeat will not go down well with Stephen Fleming, rested for this game, who acknowledged that his team would have to play “out of their skin” to give Australia a run in the Test series.

A haze hung low over the Bangabandhu Stadium, but the dark clouds of security threats had lifted enough for India’s first full tour of Bangladesh to get underway. The stadium was abuzz with activity, and both teams had an extended practice session even as the floodlights were pressed into service halfway into the morning. While the punters reckon that this series is unattractive, both teams have enough to play for.”It’s probably more important to us than it is to India, I would think,” said Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach. “We are very pleased that India have come to Bangladesh and brought their full team. Every game is tough, maybe with the exception of Zimbabwe, which we’re looking forward to.” But, for India, who lost at home to Australia, and did not quite thump a weakened South African team, this series is a great chance to get their act together. Barring Virender Sehwag, the batting line-up – the backbone of this team – has failed to put up big scores.Sourav Ganguly will be taking no chances. He made it clear that the newcomers – Gagandeep Singh and Shib Sankar Paul – would have to wait a while before they have a crack at the highest level, because India were likely to field the same team that played the second Test against South Africa at Kolkata. An attack with Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan sharing the new ball, and Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh taking up spinning duties is the combination that will best suit this pitch.”It’s a typical Dhaka wicket,” said Ganguly. “A bit damp, but otherwise a typical Dhaka wicket.” A typical Dhaka wicket offers opportunity for tall scores and liberal turn. “The pitches here are pretty good. There are lots of pitches around the world that you might worry about, but you wouldn’t worry about the pitch at the Bangabandhu Stadium,” said Whatmore. “It’s a very good pitch for batting. Even though it spins, it doesn’t spin that quickly. If you get set you get good value for shots as a batsman. But as a bowler, if you put the shoulder in, it spins.”But the return of Mashrafe Mortaza, the tall strapping fast bowler who has been out of the Bangladesh team since he suffered a knee injury a year ago, has done wonders to bolster the morale of the Bangladesh team. Recently, on pitches with a tinge of green, he had batsmen ducking and weaving in domestic cricket with his awkward rising deliveries. Habibul Bashar believed his team had no problems with steep bounce. “It might not seam, but it will have some bounce. We’re happier [batting] on bouncy pitches. We are more troubled by low bounce,” said Bashar. But he admitted that India’s spinners would pose a challenge on any surface. “Harbhajan and Kumble are the kind of bowlers who can exploit any wicket. They are two great bowlers. We just have to handle them.”For Kumble this series is certain to be a memorable one. It is inconceivable that he will not pick up the one wicket that will take him past Kapil Dev. Sachin Tendulkar also has an opportunity to draw level with and even surpass Gavaskar’s tally of 34 Test hundreds. But these are not the team’s primary focus. “You can’t go into a Test match like that,” said Ganguly. “If things happen in the due course of the game, then they do. But you can’t go into a Test thinking about records or about scoring this many runs or taking this many wickets. We have two guys in the team close to records – Anil and Sachin – so if it happens it will happen.”Probable teams
India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 Zaheer Khan.Bangladesh 1 Javed Omar, 2 Nafis Iqbal, 3 Habibul Bashar (capt), 4 Mohammad Ashraful, 5 Rajin Saleh, 6 Mushifiqur Rahman, 7 Khaled Mashud (wk), 8 Manjarul Islam, 9 Mohammad Rafique, 10 Tapash Baisya, 11 Mashrafe Mortaza.

England 242 for 5 (Taylor 82) beat South Africa 142 for 9 (Birch 3-28) by 100 runs
ScorecardEngland’s women sealed the five-match ODI series with a thumping 100-run win over South Africa at Johannesburg. Claire Taylor’s rollicking 82 from 76 balls formed the backbone of an impressive total of 242 for 5 – one that proved far too much for a South African team that has failed to live up to expectations after their thrilling victory in the opening match.England won the toss and were given an excellent start by Charlotte Edwards and Laura Newton, who added 78 for the first wicket. Both fell in quick succession, and Clare Connor didn’t last long either – the first of three wickets for Cri-Zelda Brits – but Lydia Greenway scampered her way to an unbeaten 41 from 52 balls, which included a solitary boundary.South Africa made a stodgy start to their reply, and had managed just 38 runs in the first 14 overs when Connor gained revenge over Brits and bowled her for 20. She was followed swiftly by Johmari Logtenberg (39 for 2), but the innings truly fell apart in a crazy over from Rosalie Birch. Alison Hodgkinson and Cindy Eksteen were both dismissed within three balls of each other, and then before another run had been added, South Africa’s mainstay, Daleen Terblanche, was run out by Greenway for 25 (58 for 5).Edwards made it a brace of Terblanche run-outs when Claire followed suit for 10, and at 89 for 6 the game was well and truly up. Alicia Smith rallied the tail with a defiant 38, but she soon became Birch’s third victim, as England took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series with one match to come.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is reported to have appointed Dr Roland Toppin, a Barbados businessman, as its new chief executive, following a board meeting yesterday.According to Caribbeancricket.com, Toppin, the general manager of Duraplast Inc, narrowly edged out property developer Tim Nafziger for the post. He has yet to finalise his contract with the board.The board’s president, Ken Gordon, has said a public announcement should be issued in the next 10 days.Toppin takes over the reins from Roger Brathwaite who stepped down in April. The search for his replacement has been on ever since; that month, Gordon outlined the requirements of the position, stating: “The person has got to be an effective CEO, ideally with a background in cricket”.

It has been six long years since England last embarked on a tour of the Caribbean. In that time West Indies have hit rock-bottom, bounced a couple of times, and now – typically – are beginning to show signs of that long-awaited renaissance, just in time for England’s arrival. True, they haven’t exactly set the world alight on their current tour of South Africa, but with Brian Lara in his best form for a decade, and a host of young and free-spirited batsmen following in his wake, the next couple of months promise to be a torrid time for England’s bowlers.John Etheridge was sounding particularly sceptical in . “England have unveiled the men they believe can tame the genius of Brian Lara,” he declared, before adding: “They are a mixed bag of confidence-challenged, injury-prone bowlers with just 326 Test wickets between them.” But, in keeping faith with the 15 men who were originally selected for the tours of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Etheridge was at least satisfied that the selectors were being consistent.”The Master Blaster’s current form is as sobering as a New Year detox,” announced Mike Walters, who feared that Lara’s “ramrod-straight bat” could cause England as much heartache as Muttiah Muralitharan’s “corkscrew arm” did before Christmas. “So reinvigorated is his appetite for harvesting runs,” added Walters, “that bookies William Hill are offering only 33-1 against Lara to break Matthew Hayden’s world-record 380 this year.””[England’s bowlers] will need to show as much nerve as verve to come out on top,” suggested Derek Pringle in . “Grounds in the Caribbean are small with demanding, urgent crowds and games can quickly slide away when batsmen throw the bat. Bowlers will need character and control, something in short supply since Andrew Flintoff’s workload was cut to save his groaning body.”Much of the comment surrounds the probable selection of Simon Jones – assuming he comes through England A’s trip to India and Malaysia without any further problems from the knee he injured so horrifically in the first Ashes Test last winter. “Jones could easily find himself playing in the opening Test at Sabina Park, Kingston, the quickest track in the West Indies,” said Pringle. “If he does, it would rank as one of the greatest returns from injury in any sport, given the grotesque angle that his leg bent at the Gabba.” Pringle, however, was less convinced about Jones’s fellow speedster, Steve Harmison: “He has the height and pace to be as effective as Curtly Ambrose, but will have to win over the sceptics within his team, who feel he does not always savour the ‘hard yards’.”England’s answer to Ambrose on that 1997-98 tour, Angus Fraser, was understandably tub-thumping about the need for accuracy as well as out-and-out speed. Writing in , he extolled the time-honoured virtues of line and length. “Pace has to be combined with accuracy if it is to be effective against batsmen who love playing shots against anything short and wide,” he preached. “And this is the challenge for Jones. In Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Smith – who scored a magnificent century on his Test debut against South Africa on Tuesday – the West Indies possess five batsmen who can take apart a wayward attack.”Christopher Martin-Jenkins of agreed. “The lesson of Fraser’s success in the West Indies six years ago, and indeed of all cricket played on flat pitches down the years, is that against the best batsmen it is accuracy, extra bounce and an ability to move the ball through the air or off the seam that gets results.” But, with the experience of Martin Bicknell once again overlooked, CMJ feared for the success of England’s greenhorn attack. “Rapid improvement will be necessary,” he intoned, “both if England are to win in the West Indies for the first time since Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, and if a credible attack for the next Ashes series is to be developed.”The last word, however, must go to The Guardian, who were so unenthused by the squad announcement that they hardly saw fit to mention it at all. Instead, they offered a full-page feature on how tough life has been for Test bowlers in the last 12 months. “If you meet a Test bowler in the street, do not ask him how he is,” warned Tanya Aldred. “Do not seek to look at his figures or invite him home to watch a 2003 highlights package. This is a bad time for bowlers.”The worry for England, is that the good times remain some way away yet.

Herschelle Gibbs is no stranger to controversy. In a short life he has run foul of the authorities on several occasions, most notably when he became embroiled in the infamous match-fixing scandal with the disgraced former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje. But in an interview with Simon Wilde in the London-based Sunday Times, Gibbs showed little remorse for his involvement with Cronje and even joked that he treated his six-month ban as a “holiday”.”I loved it,” he said when asked about his forced break. “I played golf virtually every week. It wasn’t a difficult time. I’m a happy sort of guy. I don’t really get down about things that don’t go my way.” The life-skills counselling that Gibbs undertook following the hearings appears not to have included the art of thinking before speaking.At the King Commission hearings, Gibbs broke down during questioning, and yet he admitted that soon after he and Cronje “had a good laugh”. And Gibbs added that he held no animosity towards Cronje for getting him involved in the scandal. “No. I never for one minute held it against him.”Barry Richards hinted that Gibbs isn’t necessarily the sharpest card in the pack. “Team management should not burden him with game plans and undue responsibility,” he told Wilde.Perhaps the best assessment of Gibbs comes from Wilde himself. “He is living proof of the dangers inherent in living the blinkered existence of the professional sportsman,” Wilde wrote. “He still laughs at serious issues and often opens mouth before engaging brain.”Click here for the full Sunday Times article

Fidel Edwards’s figures of 5 for 36 are the third-best figures by a West Indian bowler on Test debut. Here’s the list of the top 10 West Indian performances on debut..normal {color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;}

Brad Hodge has accepted a new contract with Leicestershire for next season.Even though the county had a torrid summer, being relegated in the Championship and the National League, Hodge made his mark in emphatic style. He was Leicestershire’s leading scorer with 1,293 runs at an average of 53.87. He also set a new county record with an innings of 302 not out against Nottinghamshire.James Whitaker, Leicestershire’s director of cricket, said: “Brad had many outstanding performances for Leicestershire during 2003. While scoring over 1400 first-class runs at an average of over 50, he scored five first-class centuries including a score of 300.”Playing for Victoria, Brad has made a tremendous start to the new Australian season with scores of 101, 107 not out and 50 not out in the first three one-day league games, and he also scored 111 not out against the powerful New South Wales side in a four-day league game.”I am delighted that he has agreed to play for the club during the 2004 season. I know that Brad’s enthusiasm and desire for continuous improvement can influence the development of all the players at the club.”And Hodge himself was just as pleased: “I am very excited about the opportunity of again playing for Leicestershire," he said. "During the 2004 season I will be very keen to help the club, both on and off the field, to the best of my abilities.”While Hodge remains in the squad, Trevor Ward, Jamie Grove and Matt Whiley have all been released, and Devon Malcolm has retired.

Central Districts have made two changes to their team which lost to Wellington in Masterton for their next match against Otago at Queen’s Park in Invercargill starting on Monday.Left-arm medium-fast bowler Lance Hamilton was unavailable for selection due to injury and Ewen Thompson has replaced him while Peter Ingram has been recalled to replace Greg Loveridge.The full team is: Craig Spearman (captain), Peter Ingram, Jamie How, Greg Todd, Glen Sulzberger, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, Bevan Griggs, Andrew Schwass, Michael Mason, Brent Hefford, Ewen Thompson.