CRICKET RSS WORLD

Pre-tournament favourites Malaysia and Nepal cruised to easy wins on the opening day of the ten-team ACC Under-19 Elite Cup in Kuwait. Afghanistan, whose senior side were the success story of the recent ICC World Cup Qualifiers, also got off to a flying start, but there was a surprise defeat for UAE.

Malaysia eased to a five-wicket win with more than ten overs to spare over Singapore after bowling them out for 183, Prem Dadlani providing the bulk of Singapore’s run with 96.

Nepal had more trouble in beating Saudi Arabia, and they had Amrit Bhattarai to thank as his 82 helped them to 233 after they had slipped to 76 for 7. That was too much for the Saudis who were bowled out for 96.

Afghanistan thrashed Bhutan by eight wickets after bowling them out for 63, ambling home in 13 overs.

UAE were bundled to a two-wicket defeat by Qatar after being bowled out for 164.

Nepal and Afghanistan made it two wins out of two on the second day of the ACC Under-19 Elite Cup in Kuwait.

Nepal’s win was against Malaysia, one of the pre-tournament favourites, and it extended their winning run against them to seven matches. Malaysia batted on winning the toss and scored 203, built around 90 from Keithan. Gyanendra Malla, Nepal’s captain, made 86 not out as they passed the target with six wickets in hand.

Afghanistan dismissed Oman for 188 (their last five wickets fell for 20) and then cruised to an eight-wicket win as Iqbal Maliki (86)and Noor ul Haq (79) put on 157 for the first wicket.

Hong Kong opened their account with a four-wicket win over Singapore who they bowled out for 124, aided by no fewer than five run-outs. Jamie Atkinson, who made his first-class debut for Durham UCCE earlier this month, hit 61 to spearhead the chase.

Tony Munro

Fiji have begun the rebuilding process by naming a new-look squad for next month's Stafford-Knight series against Vanuatu.

A change of captain and the promotion of three Under-19 national team players are among the changes from the one which finished fifth at last year's World Cricket League Division Four tournament in Tanzania. The team inished last in group matches, winning just the one game over Tanzania, but won the fifth-place play-off match against Jersey. As a result, they will play in Division Five in 2010.

Colin Rika, the former captain, is a reserve for the 14-man squad which will play against Vanuatu in two consecutive best-of-three series in Vila. Weather permitting, six games will be played, all using ODI 50-over-per-side rules.

Six players from last year's Division Four squad have been omitted and a captain is yet to be named. The three U-19 players are wicket-keeper Maciu Babiau, opener Seru Makutu and legspinner Viliame Yabaki.

Cricket Fiji High Performance Manager Steve Jenkin, who will coach the team, said it was clear change was required and the Vanuatu matches would be used to identify what that was. "We did not have a good result in Tanzania and we need to improve and that means hard work. I am not sure we will change the way we play - I’ll know more after Vanuatu - but we will certainly have to be more consistent at being good. We want to regain our previous position within ICC.”

Fiji will play in the East Asia-Pacific Trophy in Samoa in September. These games are part of the performance assessment criteria for Vanuatu's application for Associate membership. Fiji won last year's series against Vanuatu 2-0.

Fiji squad: (captain to be named)

Josaia Baba, Maciu Babiau, Eric Browne, Joji Bulabalavu, Iniasi Cakacaka, Josefa Dabea, Samu Draunivudi, Sakaraia Lomani, Seru Makutu, Joeli Mateyawa, Peni Rika, Jone Sevou, Josefa Sorovakatini, Viliame Yabaki; reserves – Malcolm Bossley, Colin Rika, Omid Saberi, Tukana Tavo.

Global cricket continues to pound its own never-ending treadmill with the urgent ferocity of a marathon runner who has remembered mid-race that he was supposed to be at his own wedding, but is on course for a personal best which he is unwilling to sacrifice. The IPL has added further congestion, while proving that, contrary to scientific expectation, the best way to solve the problem of players complaining about an overloaded calendar was not to reduce the amount of cricket, but add to more and cover it with solid gold.

With so much of the world’s cricketing focus on the IPL, it has been easy to forget that the first Test of the English summer is just two weeks away – which is an entirely ridiculous sentence to be able to commit to cyberpaper on the 23rd of April. As the great cricket scribe EW Swanton once wrote: “An Englishman should never start a Test match when he can still catch frostbite by sneaking into Lord’s at the dead of night and playing nude cricket on the square. This Gubby and I learned by bitter experience on a moonlit evening early last May.”

The English domestic season is already in full swing – if ‘swing’ is the correct terminology for something that lurches spasmodically from one form of cricket to the next, like a drunk polygamist trying to cuddle the right wife.

I realise that the expanded programme of international cricket is necessary to fund the expanded programme of international cricket, but the current structure of the England team’s summer is designed to minimise spectator anticipation – Tests begin before the season, its characters and its form lines have properly started to take shape, without the curtain-raising, rivalry-establishing pre-fight sparring of a one-day series. The matches are then squeezed together into frantic back-to-back bowler-punishing wodges, with an ODI series tagged on as an elongated afterthought, dragging along through September to end the summer on a probably damp and quickly-forgotten squib. (By comparison, when Jimi Hendrix played the Woodstock festival, he was on after Herbert The Singing Labrador, not before. Otherwise, Herbert would have struggled, however good his barked rendition of Blue Moon.)

Chennai Super Kings' Andrew Flintoff and MS Dhoni share a light moment with Delhi Daredevils skipper Virender Sehwag before the start of their game. (AFP Photo)

Yusuf Pathan celebrates Rajasthan Royals' win in the super over. (AFP Photo)

Sachin Tendulkar lifts candles off a cake at a surprise birthday party in Durban. Tendulkar celebrated his 36th birthday with friends and teammates in South Africa during the Indian Premier League. (AFP Photo)

Jacques Kallis hits a six off Irfan Pathan. (AFP Photo)

The hunt is on for a stolen watch once owned by the legendary 1868 Australian indigenous cricketer Johnny Mullagh, and pawn shop dealers and collectors have been alerted to inform the Geelong police in case thieves try to sell it. The watch was in possession of the family of Charles Lawrence, the organiser of the 1868 tour to England, recognised by Cricket Australia as the first cricket team to represent Australia.

Lawrence’s great great grandson, Ian Friend, kept the watch in a safe in his office in Port Lonsdale, Victoria, from which it was stolen, along with cash. The watch apparently has no commercial value. Mullagh was one of the star players of that tour and the watch was presented to him by the Gentlemen of Sussex. It’s believed that he traded the watch for a trophy because he couldn't read the time.

Oh dear. It seems that Michael Vaughan has battuus interruptus, otherwise known as premature dismissal syndrome, that often embarrassing condition to which stylish batsmen are peculiarly vulnerable. It is very easy to spot the afflicted: they walk confidently out to bat and begin with a few sweetly-timed boundaries but then get out for not very many, and the onlookers who were contentedly setting themselves down to savour some delectable batting haute cuisine get no more than a mouthful before an over-zealous waiter whips their plates away.

Even though today’s innings was probably cut short by an over-zealous umpire, Vaughan’s chances of appearing in the Tests this summer are receding daily. Which means that those of us who were hoping that Headingley would resound in July to the Barmy Army’s version of “Kumbaya” while the former captain’s cover drive simultaneously completes his hundred and clinches the Ashes are liable to become very boring as we intone sentences beginning “If only …” at every conceivable opportunity, so be warned.

From Andrew Hughes, United Kingdom

When you commit to watching the IPL, you resign yourself to spending several weeks in the company of a rag-tag bunch of presenters, pundits and media personalities. Over the course of the tournament, these people will become as familiar to you as your own family and in many cases, just as annoying. And none more so than Setanta’s hand-picked studio guests.

For the opening day, they had drafted in noted former slogger and radio persona Ronnie Irani as their IPL in-studio instant analyser. His mission: to give us the inside track, to be our mole, our secret agent; letting us in on what really goes on behind the scenes and explaining the nuances of the wonderful game to the uninitiated.

From Andrew Hughes, United Kingdom

Yesterday was a traumatic day for me, the first on which I have been unable to watch any IPL action. It happens to all of us, of course. However much we commit to a sporting event, sooner or later, we are always unfaithful, even if it’s only to nip into the kitchen to make a cup of tea (which is how I missed the very first ball of the opening game). But having tried life without Shilpa, Shane and Sunny, I didn’t like it.

Because, after a little coy toe-dipping and nervous anticipation, the IPL has finally plunged, carefree as a love-struck hippo, into the televisual waters of fate. (This is a metaphor. More accurately, it is a bad metaphor, of which more later). Week one has brought us balls bouncing from skulls, foul-mouthed Bollywood goddesses, fugitive dogs and lots of dancing. On occasions, a cricket match has broken out.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland deserve an opportunity to play test cricket having proved themselves in all forms of the game, the head of the country's cricket board said.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders after a super over in their Indian Premier League match at Newlands on Thursday.

DURBAN (Reuters) - AB de Villiers blasted the first century of the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to lead the Delhi Daredevils to a nine-run victory over the Chennai Super Kings at Kingsmead in Durban on Thursday.

(Reuters) - Indian Premier League result and standings on Friday.

DURBAN (Reuters) - Ravi Bopara blasted his way to a half century to help the Kings XI Punjab beat the Bangalore Royal Challengers by seven wickets at Kingsmead on Friday for their first victory in this year's Indian Premier League (IPL).

LONDON (Reuters) - England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff will miss next month's test series against West Indies after returning from the Indian Premier League to undergo knee surgery, the England and Wales Cricket Board said on Friday.

- Scoreboard from the second of five one-day international matches between Pakistan and Australia at the Dubai Sports City cricket stadium on Friday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Australia produced a disciplined all-round performance to beat Pakistan by six wickets to level the five-match series 1-1 on Friday.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders after a super over in their Indian Premier League match at Newlands on Thursday.

DURBAN (Reuters) - AB de Villiers blasted the first century of the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to lead the Delhi Daredevils to a nine-run victory over the Chennai Super Kings at Kingsmead in Durban on Thursday.