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Results

CWC

Australia beat South Africa by 84 runs

Australia 377/6 (Hayden 101, Clarke 92, Hall 2/60)

South Africa 294 (de Villiers 92, Smith 74, Hogg 3/61)

England beat Kenya by 7 wickets

Kenya 177 (Tikolo 76, Kamande 17, Anderson 2/27)

England 178/3 (Joyce 75, Pietersen 56*, Tikolo 1/1

Euro 08 Qualifiers

Kazakhstan 2 - 1 Serbia
 
Poland 5 - 0 Azerbaijan
 
Portugal 4 - 0Blgium
 
Faroe Islands 0 - 2 Ukraine
 
Scotland 2 - 1 Georgia
 
Lithuania 0 - 1 France

Moldova 1 - 1 Malta
 
Norway 1 - 2 Bosnia-Herzegovina
 
Greece 1 - 4 Turkey

Ireland 1 - 0 Wales
 
Cyprus 1 - 3 Slovakia
 
Czech Republic 1 - 2 Germany

Estonia 0 - 2 Russia
 
Israel 0 - 0 England
 
Croatia 2 - 1 Rep. of Macedonia
 
Liechtenstein 1 - 4 Northern Ireland
 
Spain 2 - 1Denmark
 
Albania 0 - 0 Slovenia
 
Luxembourg 1 - 2 Belarus
 
Holland 0 - 0 Romania

Results

CWC

West Indies beat Ireland by 8 wickets on D/L method

Ireland 183/8 (Bray 41, Botha 28, Gayle 2/23)

West Indies 190/2 (Chanderpaul 102*, Sarwan 36, Langford-Smith 1/33)

Sri Lanka beat India by 69 runs

 Sri Lanka 254/6 (Tharanga 64, Silva 59, Khan 2/49)

India 185 (Dravid 60, Sehwag 48, Muralitharan 3/41)

Woolmer Strangled

It has been confirmed that the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer is being treated as murder. Woolmer was found in his hotel room the night after Pakistan suffered a shock defeat to World Cup new comers Ireland. At the time it was reported that he may have died from a heart attack brought on by stress. Throughout the week various claims and speculations were forth coming as to the true nature of Woolmers death. Many seemed to believe that he may have been killed. Jamaican newspapers had reported that senior sources within the police department had commented that thee were signs that Woolmer had been strangled. These were denied. However after a second post mortem had taken place it can now be confirmed that there is evidence that Mr Woolmer may have been strangled. There were no signs of a break in or of a struggle in his room so it seems that he may have known the killer. Pakistani News is also reporting that a man has been arrested in connection with the murder. This has been denied in Jamaica. The Pakistani News reports suggest that the man had his cell phone and diary confiscated and that these contained the names and numbers of some Indian and Sri Lankan cricketers. Yesterday former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz claimed that Woolmer may have been killed to silence him from blowing the whistle on a betting scandal he may have uncovered. The police have said that, although keeping an open mind, they would not like to speculate that match fixing is involved at this time. Police are also still awaiting results of the toxicology report. The Woolmer family were made aware of the developments but were to shaken to comment. A statement from the family is expected soon. In the meantime the World Cup continues under the increasingly darker shadows of this murder.

Results

CWC

New Zealand beat Canada by 114 runs

New Zealand 363/5 (Vincent 101, Fleming 66, Sandher 2/5

Canada 249 (Davison 52, Billcliff 50, Patel 3/25)

Holland beat Scotland by 8 wickets

Scotland 136 (Rogers 26, McCullum 24, Stelling 3/12)

Holland 140/2 (ten Doeschate 70* Zuiderent 43*, 2/29 Blain)

Matchfixing and murder?

Speaking on Sky News today, Gill Woolmer, the wife of Bob Woolmer, said that she could not rule out the possibility that her husband had been murdered. This comes after an autopsy had deemed that Woolmers death not be labelled as suspicious. The results of further tests, including toxicology, are expected soon and will hopefully provide more answers for his family and the public.When asked about the speculation that her husband had committed suicide by overdosing on pills and alcohol, Mrs Woolmer, together with her son Russel, said that this would never have happened. She went on to say that he had been depressed after Pakistan’s shock defeat by Ireland the night before, but that he had always been depressed his team had not performed as well as they could. With mounting speculation that Woolmers death may have been foul play, newspapers in Jamaica are claiming that they have sources within the police department who are saying that there is evidence that Mr Woolmer may have been strangled. Following on from this claim is the news that Sarfraz Nawaz, a former Pakistan fast bowler, is alleging that Woolmer may have been strangled to silence him from going public about a betting scandal that he may have discovered. Nawaz says that he believes that bookmakers are manipulating results at the World Cup, and that this may involve some Pakistan cricketers. He goes on to claim that Woolmer may have discovered this betting scandal involving his own players and as a result was silenced before he could speak out. It must be remembered though that at this time these claims are just that, claims, pure speculation. Match fixing and murder are not what the game of cricket or the family of Bob Woolmer need to hear right now. If it turns out that he lost his life as a result of a game, for that is just what sport is, a game, then this game may be sullied for a long time to come. Lets hope for all our sake, and most importantly for that of his family, that this is not the case.

Results

CWC

Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 93 runs on D/L method
Pakistan 349 (Nazir 160, Inzamam 37, Chigumbura 3/50)
Zimbabwe 99 (Chigumbura 27, Matsikenyeri 18, Afridi 3/20)

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 198 runs on D/L method
Sri Lanka 318/4 (Jayasuriya 109, Sangakkara 56, Hasan 1/49)
Bangladesh 112 (Ashraful 45*, Bashar 18, Maharoof 3/26)

Bob Woolmer RIP

Born in India, played for England, coached South Africa and Pakistan, and died in Jamaica. Bob Woolmer was truly a man of the world and will be mourned by all in the cricketing fraternity. Woolmer played 19 tests for England after making his debut against Australia in 1974. He joined Kerry Packer’s World Series in 1977 and was a member of a rebel England tour to South Africa in the early 80’s. Although a fine all rounder, he was , named one of Wisdens 5 Cricketers of the year in 1975, it was as a coach that Woolmer excelled. He won a string of trophy’s while coaching Warwickshire in the 90’s. It was during this golden period that Allan Donald. Brian Lara, and Shaun Pollock played under him at varies stages. His great success and growing reputation at Warwickshire lead to his appointment as South African coach in the mid Nineties. After a triangular series in Pakistan, against the hosts and Australia, where South Africa lost all 6 games, Woolmer did not make the best of starts to his international coaching career. However from there South Africa went from strength to strength and with a close relationship with captain Hansie Cronje, Woolmer and South Africa enjoyed their most successful period in post isolation cricket. In 117 ODI’s they won 83 - a 73% win rate. In tests they enjoyed 10 series wins out of 15 played. During his tenure as coach South Africa were arguably the best ODI team in world cricket and were within the top two in Test cricket. In 1998 they won the inaugural Champions Trophy. In both 1996 and 1999 they went into the World Cup as the favourites but failed to win the trophy. In 1996 after winning all their group matches they were beaten by the West Indies in the quarter finals, with Brian Lara scoring a memorable 100. Agonisingly in 1999 they were knocked out in the Semi Final after tying with Australia. That would prove to be Woolmers last game in charge of South Africa. He then worked with the ICC helping developing counties, most notably Namibia. In 2004 he took charge of Pakistan, one of the most difficult jobs in sport. Together win captain Inzamam Ul Haq, he brought a togetherness to a Pakistan team that has seldom been seen. They were a very talented and constantly improving team and went into this World Cup as one of the favourites. Unfortunately they were knocked out after losing to the West Indies and then to Ireland in the biggest upset in World Cup history. Woolmer was died the next morning. He was known as a cricketing man, always having time to talk to anyone about the game he loved so dearly. His coaching brought with it innovation and commitment. He was the first to start using technology to further his coaching and his teams success and would rarely be seen without his laptop. In the 99 World Cup he pushed this innovation to far for some when he used an ear piece to communicate on the field to his captain Hansie Cronje. He was always ahead of everyone and used to say of his innovated theories that in a few months or a year everyone would be playing cricket this way. Although his relationship with the Pakistani players was very good and spirit and togetherness within the team was as good as its ever been, his time as coach did have its fair share of stress and controversy. In August last year Pakistan were involved in the infamous ball tampering saga that ultimately cost umpire Daryl Hair his job. Before the Champions Trophy in October and November he saw his two best bowlers, Mohammed Asif and Shoaib Akhtar, fail a drugs test. Their bans were later over turned but both were left out of the World Cup team through injury. Then came the defeat to Ireland. One of the most popular and knowledgeable men in cricket has passed. He will be greatly missed by all. He is survived by his wife and two sons. Bob Woolmer RIP.

Results

CWC

England beat Canada by 51 runs
England 279/6 (Joyce 66, Collingwood 62*, Dhaniram 3/41)
Canada 228/7 (Mulla 58, Samad 36, Anderson 2/40)

Australia beat Holland by 229 suns
Australia 358/5 (Hodge 123 , Clarke 93*, De Leede 2/40)
Holland 129 (van Bunge 33, Reekers 25, Hogg 4/27)

India beat Bermuda by 257 runs
India 413/5 (Sehwag 114, Ganguly 89, Borden 2/30)
Bermuda 156 (Hemp 76*, Minors 21, Agarkar 3/3

West Indies beat Zimbabwe by 6 wickets
Zimbabwe 202/5 (Williams 70*, Taylor 50, J Taylor 2/42)
West Indies 204/4 ( Lara 44*, Gayle 40, Mupariwa 1/34)

New Zealand beat Kenya by 148 runs
New Zealand 331/7 (Taylor 85, Mcmillan 71, Odoyo 2/55)
Kenya 183 (Shah 71, Odoyo 42, Franklin 2/20)

South Africa beat Scotland by 7 wickets
Scotland 186/8 (Brown 45*, Watson 31, Hall 3/4
South Africa 188/3 (Smith 91, de Villiers 62, Haq 2/43)

FA Cup Quarter Final Replay

Man Utd 1-0 Middlesbrough (Ronaldo)

Chelsea 2-1 Spurs (Shevchenko, Wright-Phillips, Keane)

St Patrick Delivers Humble Pie

Having written an article about the minnows effectively cheapening the World Cup, not being good enough and forcing us to sit through meaningless matches while we wait for the Super 8’s and the real tournament to begin, St Patrick’s day brought about two upsets by smaller teams against two of the fancied teams for this years cup. And a smack in the face for me. Bangladesh produced a very professional and accomplished victory against an Indian team that many felt could go all the way this year. On this performance they wont. Batting first India struggled up front and continued to lose wickets at regular intervals thanks to some very good bowling by the Bangladesh bowlers. Only Ganguly with 66 and Yuvraj with 47 offered any real resistance as India were bowled out in the final over for 191 Mortaza was impressive in picking up 4/38 and was ably supported by Razzak with 3/38 and the experienced Rafique with 3/35. The young Bangladesh batsman showed great stroke play and timing as they set about knocking the runs off. Playing shots that would have made Ganguly and Sehwag proud, they took the attack to the Indians ensuring that they could comfortably tick of the runs against an increasingly frustrated and down hearted Indian attack. With a dashing start from by Tamim Iqbal, who scored 51 of 53 balls, and the more cautious Rahim who anchored the team with an unbeaten 56 from 107 balls, the run chase was set up nicely for the remaining batsmen to work the ball around and reach the target with 5 wickets and an over to spare. Even though they are a test status nation this was still a huge surprise and has set up Bangladesh with a good chance of making the Super 8’s. Being a test playing nation Bangladesh were always capable of causing an upset in this World Cup, particularly with the new pitches and small boundaries at most of the grounds. So a win for Bangladesh against India was a surprise, but could not compare to the upset in the other match played today. On St Patrick’s day Ireland produced the best result of their cricketing history by defeating Pakistan and so remaining unbeaten after two games. Putting Pakistan into bat on a pitch that had more grass then was expected, Ireland struck early and continued to do so throughout the Pakistani innings, eventually bowling them out for 132 in the 46th over. Kamran Akmal top scored with 27 and the wickets were shared by all the bowlers. Rankin was the most successful with 3/32 but it was Botha who was the most impressive taking 2/5 off 8 overs including 4 maidens.It could have been a lot worse for Pakistan as Ireland contributed 29 runs to the Pakistan total through extras. With the amount of grass on the pitch, coupled with rain during the lunch interval and overcast conditions, Pakistan would have hoped to blast the Irish out for a low total. Ireland though set about cautiously, and at times nervously, but well lead by Niel O’Brian, with a well constructed 72, they edged closer and closer to their historic win. Kevin O’Brien saw them home with a slow, but well needed, 14 not out. In my earlier article where i stated that the minnows had no place at the World Cup I did suggest that the only real upset could come from the Irish beating Zimbabwe. Having tied with Zimbabwe they would have been given little chance against Pakistan. In reflection however if any of the fancied teams were going to come unstuck it would have been Pakistan, who’s unpredictability means that they are well capable of beating Australia one day and losing to a local club team the next. The win now means that Ireland are virtually through to the Super 8’s at their first World Cup and their fans can expect a longer then expected holiday. Their fairytale continues, and they wont make it past the Super 8’s and more than likely wont win a single game in the next phase, but having exceeded even their own expectations they have certainly brought the World Cup to life and given the minnows the freedom to dream, and me to eat humble pie. This St Patrick’s day in the Caribbean is certainly one that belongs to the Irish.