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Women’s cricket sides from five schools and four clubs are to take the field on Saturday (March 31) at Westridge High School, where the Harare Metropolitan Cricket Association will be holding trials.The HMCA are looking to choose a squad for the women’s inter-provincial tournament which is due to be held in Kwekwe from April 20 to 24.Eaglesvale, Girls’ High School, Hatfield, Roosevelt and hosts Westridge have already confirmed their participation in the school’s section while Glen View, Harare Royals, Kuwadzana and Takashinga will be competing in the clubs’ category.Interest in the women’s game has been on a steady incline ever since the Zimbabwean national women’s team made it through to the final round of qualifiers which will be in Pakistan later this year. The Zimbabwe ladies created history last year after winning the prelims in Kenya in their first international outing.Commenting on the growth of women’s cricket in the country, coordinator Chiedza Mafunga said the interest has been “overwhelming”. She continued: “The response we are getting is just awesome. Even recently-affiliated provinces like Mashonaland West have come up with cricket programmes for the ladies. Generally, there has been an upward trend in playing numbers ever since the successful performance in Kenya last year.”

There is a suggestion circulating around India that the BCCI are considering buying their own jumbo jet so that they can ferry teams around the country. This latest grand idea comes on the back of England’s request to have direct flights between venues on their current tour.During their trip, England chartered a plane to travel between Nagpur and Mohali so that they could cut down their journey time. The BCCI are now thinking about investing in a plane to ease the traveling of touring teams and the Indian squad.A BCCI official told the Indo-Asian news service: “We all had gone to Mohali [for the second Test] after the England team sought direct flights between Nagpur and Mohali when a colleague said that all these transport problems could be overcome and for that the board should buy a Boeing.”He suggested if the board has its own airplane, the Indian team and visiting teams could be flown from one venue to the other without depending on the availability of seats in other airlines.”There is even the idea that the plane might be used during the domestic tournaments such as the Duleep Trophy and Ranji Trophy.

Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, has accept an invitation by Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, to visit and watch the ongoing India-Pakistan series. Manmohan extended the invitation publicly on Thursday and it was accepted within a day.A Pakistan foreign ministry official told AAP, “Yes, he has accepted the invitation,” while a foreign office spokesman, Jalil Abbas Jilani, said that they were “looking at the schedule of the president.” Musharraf had expressed his desire to watch a match in the ongoing series in India in an earlier interview, and this was seen as an opportunity to improve bilateral ties between the two countries. Manmohan said as much when he made the invitation to Musharrraf: “I do hope [President Musharraf] and his family will enjoy their visit to our country,” he was reported to have said by the BBC. “I must say… nothing brings the people of the subcontinent together more than our love for cricket and Bollywood.”Earlier, a spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs said that the visit would not be given the status of a state visit, but a friendly one.

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ScorecardOvernight rain, followed by intermmitent showers, meant that no further play was possible on the second day in the tour game between the Board President’s XI and New Zealand at Visakhapatnam.For more than an hour after the scheduled start of play at 9am, the sun was shining, and cricket looked eminently possible – until a big black cloud moved over the stadium, hovered for 10 minutes, and poured out torrents of rain.With big puddles of water still on the covers, the start of play was put off till an inspection at 1pm. At that time, with the outfield clearly too soggy to start, the umpires informed the captains that play would be called off. With no result feasible tomorrow – the final day – there is a strong possibility that, weather permitting, a limited-overs match will be held to give the crowds something to watch and the players some cricket.Day 1 Bulletin

Rawalpindi were dealt a big blow by match referee Abdul SamiKhan Thursday when he slapped a one-match ban on pacemanMohammad Zahid and fined him Rs 5,000 for imtimidatorybowling.Zahid was involved in a tiff with Rest of Punjab batsmanMohammad Fazil Wednesday in the Quaid Trophy match at theKRL Stadium and indulged in what the umpires said was an”intentional attempt by the bowler to hurt the batsman.”The referee summoned Zahid and after a hearing decided topenalise him, although Rawalpindi officials made desperateattempts to have the decision reverted.The match itself seemed headed for a draw as the Rest,resuming at the overnight 250 for five accumulated 423 intheir first innings – a lead of 174.By the close of third day’s play, that came 18 overs early,Rawalpindi in their second innings were 122 for one, still52 behind and a full day still to go.The Rest total revolved around a fine unconquered 127 bySufian Munir, who was 50 overnight. His 204-ball innings waslaced with 19 fours and he was involved in three importantpartnerships. The first stand with his overnight partnerFazil yielded 89 for the sixth wicket and later along withAbdur Rauf, he put on 53 for the eighth wicket. But it washis last wicket partnership of 88 with Mushtaq Ahmed thatreally boosted the Rest total. Mushtaq was in a punishingmood and struck six sixes and five boundaries in a knock of68 runs.Babar Naeem took the bowling honours with three for 71followed by Azhar Bhatti and Yasir Arafat who claimed twowickets each.Rawalpindi were given a good start to their second inningsby their openers Naveed Ashraf and Babar, with both strikinghalf centuries.When play ended prematurely due to bad light, Babar wasstill at the crease on 56 and with him was Mohammad Wasim on10.Azhar Abbas took the only Rawalpindi wicket to fall.

On an increasingly benign wicket, Victoria settled for batting practice today as their match in the Apple Islepetered out to a draw, with the Vics 331 ahead with five wickets in hand when stumps were called.Victoria were never in any threat of outright defeat today as they lost only three of their batsmen today,with Tasmania’s bowlers unable to gain any success in the opening session and thus unable to applyany pressure on their northern neighbours.Mark Ridgway took his last first class wicket in the fifth over after lunch trapping left handed Matthew Mottin front for 86 after over four hours resistance.An hour later, Laurie Harper after a brisk 40, was bowled by a ball from Andrew Downton.Meantime Brad Hodge was quietly closing in on a hundred and seemed set for it andin fact it took part time bowler Michael Divenuto to knock him over a boundary short of the milestone,trapping him in front for 96.Ian Harvey got a good two hours batting practice with an unbeaten 78 as his side look north to a chanceto take the Pura Milk Cup out of odds on favourite Queensland’s hands.Quite appropriately on a day of little other significance, Ridgway who fibbed about his age for acouple of years until someonechecked his driver’s licence one day in the changerooms,bowled his and the match’s last over andwas applauded off the ground as he led his side off the Bellerieve Oval for the last time.

West Ham advanced to the quarter-finals of the Europa League last night,beating Sevilla 2-0 after extra time thanks to a Tomas Soucek header and a tap-in from perhaps the most popular player in London Stadium right now in Andriy Yarmolenko.

David Moyes’ side had to make do without key attacker Jarrod Bowen, while Aaron Cresswell and Michail Antonio were fast-tracked back to fitness after picking up knocks at the weekend, and they both put in an excellent shift.

However, perhaps the most impressive performance came from star midfielder Declan Rice, who achieved the joint highest match-rating according to SofaScore with 7.7 alongside his midfield partner Soucek.

The England midfielder said after the match last night: “I said this after the FA Cup win against Leeds, I’ll take anyone and I think the lads will take anyone as well.“There’s no-one to fear. Sevilla were probably the favourites. When the draw came out, people thought we had the hardest draw and we were going to get knocked out… and we’ve knocked them out.“So, look, we can go away anywhere and get a result and teams coming here know they’re in for a game when they step into this stadium with our fans, so I’m ready to take anyone.”The England international completed an impressive 90% of his passes as West Ham controlled the game, looking comfortable in possession after the winning goal went in. Rice was a huge part of that, having also completed three dribbles and being unlucky not to pull off a fourth after fatigue kicked in and the ball trickled out of play uncontested.On top of that, he accurately delivered six of his eight long ball attempts, including a number of excellent cross-field switches to get the wide men involved, and also into Antonio, who bullied Jules Kounde and Nemanja Gudelj all night long.Rice also was excellent on the defensive end of his remit, winning seven of his duels and making three critical interceptions and tackles each, along with one clearance to relieve the danger for the Irons.A reported transfer target for Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea this summer, last night showed that the 23-year-old remains as focused and determined as ever for West Ham, who will surely now believe they can go on to lift the Europa League trophy.In other news: West Ham can repeat Bowen masterclass as Moyes eyes bid for “exceptional” £10m brute

Mark Vermeulen is poised to make the unlikeliest of international comebacks a little more than two years after he burnt down Zimbabwe Cricket’s academy and tried to set fire to the ZC boardroom.He was cleared on grounds of mental illness by a Harare court a year ago after it was revealed he suffered from a serious depressive illness.Although he resumed playing club cricket, few believed he had any hope of returning to the national side given his many problems. Shortly before the attacks in October 2006, he had been banned from playing club cricket in England for ten years – later reduced to three – after an incident where he clashed with spectators in a league match.In May 2008, Vermeulen publicly offered to help rebuild the academy if he was handed a central contract, but nothing came of it.However, Ozias Bvute, ZC’s managing director, confirmed to Cricinfo that Vermeulen would be offered a chance of rehabilitation. “We have allowed Mark to participate in our leagues. There was actually no ban on him, but relations were restrained after the two arson attacks.”In a separate interview with the local Independent newspaper, Bvute said: “He approached us with a desire to play in our leagues. Having weighed various issues we decided it was in his best interest to be allowed to play since he indicated that cricket was the only thing he lives for.”Should he make the grade, he will be selected [for the national team]. The decision was driven by a desire to help rehabilitate him, taking into account that he served Zimbabwe well when he first played for the national side. Life is such that everyone deserves a second chance.”Vermeulen played 32 ODIs and eight Tests between 2000 and 2004 but was no stranger to controversy. In 2003, he was sent home from the tour of England because of disciplinary problems, and as schoolboy he was once banned for walking off with the stumps after receiving a poor lbw decision and locking himself in the changing room.Nevertheless, on his day Vermeulen, who is still only 29, is a good top-order batsman and if he can regain his form then he is likely to be pressing for a recall in the near future.

ScorecardVidarbha rode on a superb unbeaten 129 from Faiz Fazal, the opener, to complete a comfortable eight-wicket victory against Madhya Pradesh in Indore. Set a challenging target of 275, Vidarbha got off to a perfect start with Fazal and Harshal Shitoot putting together 99 for the opening wicket. Shitoot fell for 49, but Fazal then found an ideal foil in Owamir Afzal, who made 58 and added 150 for the second wicket to seal the game. Madhya Pradesh’s score was built around a 113-ball 110 from Monish Mishra. His partnership with Shadab Khan, who made 58, helped stabilise the innings after they had slumped to 78 for 4. Mishra hammered four sixes and six fours in his knock, and was dismissed off the last ball of the innings. Vidarbha have now lost all three matches in the tournament, while Madhya Pradesh have won one out of two.
ScorecardA strong bowling performance by Uttar Pradesh helped them to their second win in two days as they trounced Railways by 63 runs at the Emerald High School Ground in Indore. After being put in to bat, Uttar Pradesh lost three early wickets – including the crucial one of Mohammad Kaif, who followed his blistering 151 against Rajasthan with just 3 – but were propped up by Ravikant Shukla, who made 54, and other useful contributions from Suresh Raina (39 retired hurt), Ali Martaza and Parvinder Singh (30 each). Jai P Yadav was the most successful bowler for Railways, taking 4 for 28. Chasing a target of 247, Railways were never in the hunt, losing half their side with only 75 on the board. Karan Sharma made 40, while Rahul Deb, the wicketkeeper, made an unbeaten 32, but those contributions only delayed the inevitable.

Asia’s bid to host the 2011 World Cup came close to being derailed at the recent ICC Executive Board meeting in Dubai. Shaharyar Khan, the Pakisan Cricket Board chairman, told reporters at the National Stadium in Karachi that the bloc, consisting of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had asked – and been granted – a deadline extension for the submission of their bid. The request, he added, met sustained resistance from certain ICC member countries.Shaharyar said Asia had failed to hand in the compliance book (the document that outlines various logistical information including details of venues and facilities) by the February 28 deadline. “We missed the original deadline and asked for an extension which we got till March 16. Now the compliance book has been compiled but it still has certain problems which need to be addressed. There was lots of heated debate and resistance among members but with great difficulty we got the ICC to accept that there are genuine reasons for the delay.”The group now has till April 21 to submit the compliance book and a final decision is likely to be taken nine on 30 April. Shaharyar also admitted India had been initially a reluctant potential host but the issue had now been resolved. “I don’t think it is true anymore (that India weren’t keen). We had bilateral discussions during the meeting and India is keen and willing now – they are 100% on board.”Some concerns are yet to be resolved. Reports have suggested that Sri Lanka are not happy with the allocation of matches across the four countries (22 in India, 16 in Pakistan, 9 in Sri Lanka and six in Bangladesh) although Shaharyar said no issue was raised by Sri Lanka in Dubai. The semi-finals and final, according to the chairman, are likely to be staged along the lines of the 1996 World Cup, which means India will host both semi-finals and Pakistan the final.The other headache will be an Indian one, concerning which eight or nine venues will be chosen to host the 22 matches and which will miss out. “The major problem is the rotation policy in India. It is for now India to work out and identify its centres. But we have decided that the 51 World Cup matches would be played on 15 Asian centres.”Despite the typically subcontinent problems with the bidding, Shaharyar remains confident their proposal will be eventually accepted. “I am convinced the compliance book will be ready by April 21 and it will be very difficult to reject that bid. Anyway there is an understanding that Asia will host every third World Cup so I am 95% sure that we will get it.”Shaharyar also revealed that India and Pakistan were strongly opposed to the concept of a Twenty20 World Cup so soon after the inception of the format. The ICC announced after the meeting that Twenty20 cricket is set to become an official part of the international calendar from 2007 onwards and that England could host an inaugural world championship as soon as 2009.But Shaharyar argued that it was too early to host a Twenty20 world cup. “We understand that it’s a popular concept and that if the ICC don’t do it, we could have a Mr Packer no.2 situation. But our stance is that the format has just begun. A few countries haven’t even tried it out domestically so how can you have a world cup? We hosted two tournaments so far but we can’t say definitively that it is a success just yet.”We took the position – and India was with us on this – that this isn’t furthering cricket, it debases it and it furthers only commercialism. We were the only two to oppose it officially. It needs more time. Touring teams to Pakistan will not have to play an international Twenty20 game as part of the series although if we tour somewhere else we will fulfill any such obligation.”