West Indies captain Carl Hooper arrived in Antigua Monday looking fit and ready and promising a good World Cup.Buoyed by their recent success in the shortened version of the game in recent months, Hooper said it would be folly for teams to underestimate them."We have a very good chance of doing well. We have been playing good One-Day cricket for the last year now and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t continue. I expect us to play well in this World Cup," Hooper said after his arrival from Australia to join the team for an extensive two-week camp."I expect that we will go through to the second round. I think that over the last three months we have shown we have got the measure of teams like New Zealand and India – certainly in One-Day cricket."The West Indies captain added that it would require a total team effort for the regional side to win the Cup they last lifted in 1979."I don’t think we can highlight one or two individuals," he said. "Obviously, there are some key guys in the side but, as we have shown in the last couple of months, the young players are coming through and they are beginning to score heavily.One worry"I see no reason why that shouldn’t continue."He had one worry."Our one concern over the last couple of months has probably been the bowling," he said."Looking back at that last series in India, we probably have been going for a little bit. There have been high scores."Having said that, the wickets were extremely good. We have got a chance to put that right in the next of couple of weeks and then in South Africa."Hooper is returning to the West Indies team after missing the recent tour of Bangladesh because of a knee injury that required surgery, which was performed in Australia."I had both legs done about five weeks ago and they have recovered well. I’ve been back to training for two-and-a-half weeks now so, hopefully, I’ll put in the final touches before we head off to South Africa."It was not anything major. I had a good doctor. He came highly recommended and he did a good job. It was my first time under the knife. It was comfortable and everything went smoothly and the rehab work has been good," he said.Hooper returned to the nets during the last ten days in South Australia, but was restricted to practising with a bowling machine."I’m looking forward to the camp. I had almost six weeks’ break so that would have done me good, but we have got a lot of cricket coming up. We have got the World Cup, the Aussies and the Sri Lankans, a lot to look forward to."

Sulieman Benn might not yet be back to full fitness, but he’s doing a splendid job with the ball.The tall, left-arm spinner proved to be a handful for the Windward Islands here over the weekend and his seven wickets were the most by a Barbados bowler in their easy seven-wicket victory at the Arnos Vale Playing Field."I bowled relatively well and was backed up with some good fielding. I’m pretty pleased with my performance," he said.He played a supporting role to Ian Bradshaw and Ryan Hurley in the first innings when he took two wickets, but was Barbados’ spearhead in the second with an impressive five-wicket haul.Benn is still recuperating from a knee injury he sustained last November and there were times when moving around in the field, he appeared to be slightly uncomfortable."I’ve just come back off an injury, so there will be a little stiffness there, but I’m feeling good and okay to go for the whole season," he said.Since his return, his approach to the wicket has also had a change."I’ve got a different approach to the wicket because of back injuries and soreness to the back in the past. I altered the approach to the wicket and it is easy on the back. It helps me get the ball in the areas more consistently."Both captain Courtney Browne and coach Hendy Springer acknowledged the work of Benn."In the second innings, he was the last bowler used, but he wasn’t ruffled," Browne said. "He wasn’t worried about not bowling earlier. When he got the ball in his hand, he stuck to the task. His job was to get the guys out and he said he was going to do it."Springer added: "As I said earlier this year, although he had an injury, he was recuperating and some of the games he missed were because we were keeping him in cotton wool to represent Barbados and he did Barbados proud in this game."

ADELAIDE, March 7 AAP – Three last-session wickets from young South Australian paceman Shaun Tait left Tasmania facing a huge challenge to remain competitive after day two of their Pura Cup cricket match at Adelaide Oval today.At stumps, the Tigers were 5-155 in their first innings, still needing another 196 runs to avoid the follow-on after SA declared its first innings at 6-500 at tea today.Tasmania’s chances of staying in the match rested mainly with Michael Di Venuto, who had played aggressively to be unbeaten on 80 from 114 balls at stumps, with Sean Clingeleffer with him at the crease on one.SA started today at 1-266, and again dominated with Mark Higgs the star with the bat today, scoring an unbeaten 112 from 94 balls, with 16 boundaries and one six, ahead of the declaration.The last 100 runs of the South Australian innings came in 100 balls.Opener David Fitzgerald, who batted throughout the opening day, top-scored with 147 and skipper Greg Blewett made 88, with both dismissed in today’s first session.Tait then ensured SA finished the day in complete control when he dismissed Tigers opener Scott Mason for one in the second over of Tasmania’s innings, and then came back to take two wickets in two balls with the opening over of a new spell, six overs before stumps.He dismissed Chris Bassano, LBW for two with a yorker, and Daniel Marsh, caught on the leg side for a golden duck, to cause the Tigers to slump from 3-143 to 5-143.”It started to reverse when I came back on … I thought if I keep it up on the toes it’s likely one will hit them on the toes and be a chance,” Tait said.”The Marsh (wicket) was a bit of luck, it was just an ordinary ball outside leg stump, he hit it pretty well, and (Ben Johnson) was just there.”Tait said the pitch had given the bowlers much more assistance in the final session today than during SA’s innings, and he predicted it would be even harder for Tasmania’s batsmen to survive and save the game on the third and fourth days.”It was a lot better to bowl on today rather than yesterday … tomorrow it will be even better to bowl on, the deck’s probably going to crumble up and keep a bit lower again,” he said.

Aasif Karim’s figures of 8.2-6-7-3 are the 8th most economical at 0.84 runsper over in a World Cup match by a bowler bowling at least 5 overs.The following bowlers have conceded less than 1 run per over in a World Cupmatch:

RPO Figures Name For Against Venue Year0.40 5-3-2-1 DA Reeve England Pakistan Adelaide 19920.50 12-8-6-1 BS Bedi India East Africa Leeds 19750.62 8-4-5-1 M Hendrick England Canada Manchester 19790.80 10-4-8-2 CEL Ambrose West Indies Scotland Leicester 19990.80 10-5-8-4 CM Old England Canada Manchester 19790.80 5-2-4-0 B Wood England India Lord’s 19750.83 12-6-10-0 RJ Hadlee New Zealand East Africa Birmingham 19750.84 8.2-6-7-3 AY Karim Kenya Australia Durban 20030.91 12-5-11-2 DS de Silva Sri Lanka New Zealand Derby 19830.91 12-6-11-4 JA Snow England East Africa Birmingham 19750.96 8.2-5-8-3 DR Pringle England Pakistan Adelaide 1992(Minimum 5 overs)

The record for most runs in a World Cup tournament was passed by SachinTendulkar earlier in this year’s event. In the Australia v Kenya match the record for the most wicket-keeping dismissals and catches by a fielder in a tournament were both passed. Adam Gilchrist now has 18 dismissals (all ct) in this tournament, passing the 16 (15 ct, 1 st) by Jeff Dujon (WI) in 1983 and 16 (12 ct, 4 st) by Moin Khan (Pak) in 1999. Gilchrist now has 32 dismissals (30 ct, 2 st) in his World Cup career, passing Moin Khan’s career record of 30 (23 ct, 7 st).In the fielding department, Ricky Ponting now has 10 catches in thistournament, passing the record of 8 by Anil Kumble (Ind) in 1996 and Daryll Cullinan (SA) in 1999. Dinesh Mongia (Ind) has also taken 8 catches at this year’s tournament. Ponting has now taken 17 catches in his World Cup career, passing Chris Cairns’ career record of 16.Chaminda Vaas has now taken 20 wickets (avg 14.85) in this tournament. Thisequals the record of 20 wickets in a tournament set by Geoff Allott (NZ) (avg 16.25) and Shane Warne (Aus) (avg 18.05) in 1999.

The Australian Cricket Board is cautious about a possible bid for ShaneWarne to play for charity during his doping ban.But the board stresses it’s yet to see details of the proposal for Warneto sign with the Lashings club, an English social team.Lashings bills itself the Harlem Globetrotters of cricket and hasconfirmed it’s trying to sign Warne and former Zimbabwean paceman HenryOlonga.Warne’s management has told the ACB he would be playing for charity.The ACB will decide next month what Warne can do during his ban fortaking banned diuretics, which ends on February 10 next year.

Rain restricted play at Taunton to just 1½ hours on Friday during which time Somerset scored some quick runs before declaring 276 ahead of Glamorgan.The Cidermen then captured a quick wicket to leave the visitors needing 247 to make the hosts bat again.When play eventually got underway at 2.15pm, Somerset quickly brought up the 400 to gain their fifth batting point. Aaron Laraman then launched himself at the Glamorgan attack to bring up his first half century for his new county with some lusty blows, until at three o’ clock skipper Mike Burns declared on 476 for 6, by which time the all rounder had taken his score onto 61.The former Middlesex man had faced just 38 balls and hit two sixes and seven fours much to the delight of the many faithful supporters who remained at the County Ground, whilst at the other end Rob Turner was 32 not out at the declaration.Facing a deficit of 276, Richard Johnson made an early breakthrough for the Cidermen when in his first over opener Ian Thomas edged a simple catch to wicket-keeper Turner.David Hemp came into join Adrian Dale and the pair had taken their side onto 29 without further loss before bad light and then rain caused the players to leave the field for an early tea from which they never returned.Somerset will be watching the weather forecast closely on Saturday and hoping that the rain holds off long enough for them to take the remaining nine Glamorgan wickets and notch up their second championship victory to boost their bid for promotion.

Cricket coaching opportunities in the South Somerset are in the process of improving considerably thanks to an initiative between Yeovil College and Somerset County Cricket Club and the involvement of former Combined Services coach Richard Askew.For sometime Somerset Cricket Development Officer Andrew Moulding has been aware of the need to improve coaching in the area, so when John Hole who is the Sports Centre Manager at Yeovil College made contact with him Mr Moulding was only too pleased to be able to help out.He said: "When John came to us to ask for help we were only too delighted to help him. He has managed to get some funding to upgrade the sports hall and we are going to present them with two mats that they can make use of."He continued: "One of our coaches Dan Hodges has already worked with Westlands Cricket Club to develop their cricket coaching but we still need more coaching activities to develop the game in the area."One of the E.C.B. Level 3 coaches who will be working in the Yeovil area is Richard Askew who until he was pensioned out of the Royal Navy in 2002 was cricket coach to the Combined Services XI and based at Yeovilton.Richard was born and raised in Warwickshire and obtained his degree atBangor University. He played club cricket for Birmingham League side Kenilworth Wardens before joining the Royal Navy and represented the Navy side and United Services (Portsmouth) until he was posted to RNAS Yeovilton in late 1997, since when he has played for North Perrott Cricket Club.He told me: " I suffered a frostbite injury on exercise in Norway in late 2000 and have had problems with my hands and feet ever since and although the Navy were good enough to try and give me every opportunity to recover there had been no significant improvement, so in December 2002 I was pensioned out of the service."Richard continued: "When Somerset made contact with me and invited me to be involved with grass roots cricket in my adopted county I was delighted .It is fantastic and the challenge of getting the game into schools in the South East Somerset area is very exciting. I think it is typical of Somerset’s pro-active approach that they are geared up to support a schools programme of such a professional nature."He concluded: " Without doubt, Somerset County Cricket Club is one of cricket’s leaders; from first class through to junior levels. In Kevin Shine and Mark Garaway we are lucky to have two of the most qualified and respected coaches in county cricket and I am therefore delighted to have been asked to join that team!"

Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, is far from happy with his team’s schedule, complaining that the balance between playing and time spent practising is not right. Fletcher said that the amount of one-on-one coaching he is able to do with players is insufficient.”It’s all about getting the balance right,” Fletcher explained. “It would be nice if we had a break of about two or three weeks before a tour so we could get them together and go through certain things. I want them to develop in their games but you can’t do that sort of thing during the season and we’re not alone in that because everybody is saying the same – we just have to hope we can slot it in at some stage.”England are in the middle of a three-week spell during which time they will play as many as ten one-day internationals, and no sooner is that finished than the five-Test series against South Africa gets underway. England then play Bangladesh and Sri Lanka before Christmas, moving on to the Caribbean next February before returning home for the most hectic summer of cricket yet, ending with the ICC Champions Trophy next September.Fletcher explained that while he had plenty of time with players, he was unable to make any significant changes to their techniques. “It’s very difficult because on days like today you have to have a light practice. You don’t want to start new innovations because they have a game and they have to establish themselves. It’s better they get in and establish themselves and then you can start changing things. If we change something small now and then they don’t perform, everybody will be jumping on them.”Given the increasing amount of international cricket foisted on players, it is not a situation which is likely to get any easier.

Sussex CCC are pleased to announce that Keith Greenfield has been awarded a Testimonial for 2004.Keith has represented Sussex at all levels of the game from a professional player to his current position as Director of the ECB/Sussex Academy.Keith joined the Club in 1985 as part of the Youth Opportunities Scheme and progressed to the professional staff in 1987. In all Keith played 78 first class matches, his highest score was 154* v Glamorgan at Hove in 1996, the year he was awarded his County Cap.Keith is delighted with the news:"It is a great honour that the Club has decided to recognise my service in this way. I wouldn’t have changed a moment of my career with Sussex, I realise how lucky I am to have a job that I love doing and this is just the icing on the cake."David Green, Chairman of Sussex CCC:"Keith has represented the County at every level of cricket since he joined the Club in 1985; he was the country’s very first participant in the Youth Opportunities Scheme… a professional player… 2nd XI coach and now Director of our ECB Academy."Keith is a Sussex man born and bred and he has given the Club 18 years’ loyal service and is very deserving of this recognition, he is exactly the type of player who Benefits and Testimonials were devised for. We wish Keith great success in his Testimonial year and I am sure that everyone connected with Sussex cricket will support him ."

Bangladesh’s coach Dav Whatmore was bitterly disappointed at the manner of his team’s defeat in the second Test at Peshawar, after they had matched Pakistan stride for stride over the first three days.Bangladesh had even been in command at one point, after establishing a 66-run first-innings lead, but they were bundled out for 92 second-time around. “I am speechless and at a loss to describe the reversal in this match,” Whatmore said. “I would say it is a mental thing with the team. They come so far and are unable to give the final push. We were in a position to win the match.””The wicket was a bit up and down today,” admitted Whatmore. “But still, it is a big let-down given that we had won the toss and put up a big total.” Bangladesh’s record since becoming a Test-playing nation in November 2000 now stands at 22 defeats and one draw from 23 matches.However Khaled Mahmud, Bangladesh’s captain, was more upbeat. “I am not disappointed nor do I think it is a mental thing with the players,” he said. “I think everyone tried hard. But I think Shoaib Akhtar was the difference between the two sides. He bowled very fast and swung the ball even on this pitch. He is a world-class bowler.” Shoaib’s match figures of 10 for 79 were the best of his career.”We have set ourselves small targets in every match,” added Mahmud. “And I think since the Australian tour we are improving with every match. I don’t think anyone expected us to push Pakistan this much.”Shoaib admitted that he had enjoyed the responsibility of leading Pakistan’s attack. “When the captain expects from you as a senior player youmust bowl well even if you don’t get wickets,” he said, after completing 100career wickets in the Test. “I did not know about getting 10 wickets for the first time and about my 100 wickets, but I was more concerned about finishing the match.””Shoaib is a world-class performer and helped us come back from behind,” said a grateful Pakistan captain, Rashid Latif. “He made the difference for us. We never expected that we would get them out for 96 after conceding a leadbut it was a good team effort led by Shoaib.”Javed Miandad, Pakistan’s coach, said that the rebuilding of his side was firmly on track. “After playing well in three one-day tournaments, this Test series against Bangladesh provided us with a chance to analyse weaknesses and now we are progressing well,” said Miandad. “We have analysed what are the weaknesses before the series against South Africa later this month. We came back, chased and won from bad positions in both the Tests.”Miandad admitted that the Karachi Test gave Pakistan a sleepless night, and that “the way Bangladesh have played in the two Tests showed they have thepotential to improve.”The third and final Test begins in Multan on Wednesday.