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SLAM! Sports 1999 World Cup SLAM! Cricket 1999 WORLD CUP INTERACTIVE ALSO ON SLAM!  |
Friday, June 4, 1999World Cup Cricket NotebookLONDON (AP) -- Dave Houghton isn't surprised his Zimbabwe team has made the Super Six of the cricket World Cup while teams like host England and the West Indies have been knocked out.But Houghton, 40, was overwhelmed that the squad defeated rival South Africa to get there. "All my life I've wanted to beat South Africa," said the former Test batsman who retired last year after a 20-year career. "I've played them at (field) hockey Tests as well and never managed to win." Houghton believes that his team's successful performance in reaching the last six will speed up the development of cricket in Zimbabwe, which has struggled to prove itself as a Test-playing squad. "Nobody really felt we deserved Test status and it's taken us a long time to become competitive in the test arena," he said. "But in the last 12 months we've played really well. "We've had a couple of Test victories, we won a Test series in Pakistan and we did well in the Sharjah one-day trophy. There was an air of expectation for us to get to the Super Six in this tournament and that was our plan before we left home." ------ Tendulkar forced to trim logo LONDON (AP) -- Before Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar was cut to size by Glenn McGrath on Friday, the ICC made him trim a logo on his bat to the official size. Tendulkar was spotted by the International Cricket Council using a bat with an oversized logo of the Indian tire and sporting goods company MRF during the May 26 match against Sri Lanka at Taunton. In a letter to Indian team manager Brijesh Patel, the ICC pointed out that all players have signed an agreement to ensure that the logos do not exceed 2.5 square centimetres in size. Tendulkar played his four-ball innings with a correct size logo Friday against Australia in the first Super Six match before McGrath had him caught behind for a duck. ------ Gel helps bowlers and fielders catch ball LONDON (AP) -- Bowlers and fielders often have problems keeping their hands dry so that can catch, field or bowl a sometimes slippery cricket ball. Now a company has developed a gel that appears to remedy that problem. It is being used at the county and club levels and the world's cricket authorities are checking whether its use breaks any rules. Umpires and cricket officials are always wary of the ball being tampered with to make it swing more in the air and give an unfair advantage to the bowler. Physio Sport has developed a liquid powder which, when rubbed on to a damp hand, absorbs small quantities of moisture and improves grip. Now the International Cricket Council is taking an interest. "I'll need to get one or two people to look at it because the situation is something we haven't encountered before," said ICC technical committee spokesman Clive Hitchcock. |