KINGSTON: The West Indies selection panel is meeting on Friday to pick a West Indies cricket captain for the forthcoming Cable and Wireless Series against Australia.

Selector Joey Carew told CMC Sport yesterday that selection chairman Sir Vivian Richards is convening a meeting on Friday for the panel to decide on their nomination for captaincy. The panel will give the board their recommendation after Friday’s meeting. The issue of the West Indies team captaincy has sparked great discussion in the past week after the team’s first-round exit from the World Cup and pronouncements by regular captain Carl Hooper that he was considering retirement.

Hooper, who had a miserable World Cup, scoring a mere 99 runs in six innings at an average of 19.80, was urged by Sir Vivian to stay on as team captain and the 36-year-old Guyanese is now at his Australian home resting his troublesome knees ahead of his return. The West Indies team’s physiotherapist in South Africa, Sunet Liebenberg recommended a break for Hooper, who had knee surgery in November, as he prepares for the home series against Australia starting next month. “In order for the patient to fully recover from the previous surgery, I recommend a two-week rest period,” Leibenberg had stated in a report to the regional authorities.

Hooper, who took over from Jimmy Adams as West Indies captain at the start of the 2001 home series against South Africa, is expected to return to competitive cricket later this month, probably in the Carib Beer International Challenge Series semi-finals for Guyana starting on March 28. The Australians arrive on April 2 for a series of four Tests and seven One-Day Internationals against the West Indies.

Trinidad and Tobago coach Hannibal Najjar will have his full quota of overseas-based professionals within a week for the start of the Gold Cup qualifying tournament scheduled for March 26.

Already here are  Northampton Town midfielder Brent Rahim and US-based Dwayne Demmin of the Charlotte Eagles and Avery John.
Evans Wise is expected here today while Craig Demmin is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Birmingham City striker Stern John along with other United Kingdom-based players Dennis Lawrence and Carlos Edwards of Wrexham, Collin Samuel (Falkirk) and Marvin Andrews, fresh from a winner over Dundee United on Saturday arrive on Sunday. TT face Antigua and Barbuda at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo followed by a meeting with Guadeloupe at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya on March 28 and Cuba two days later at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. Najjar was optimistic despite the short time between the players’ arrivals and the opening match. “They are all professional players and will adjust to what I am expecting of them in terms of organisation,” Najjar said.

LOCAL turfites can look forward to an increase in racedays later this year. Also, Betting Levy Board chairman Roop Chan Chadeesingh signalled to owners, an increase in stakes money is coming by June.

Arima Race Club president John O’Brien in addressing racing correspondents of daily and weekly newspapers at the annual media luncheon at the Kam Wah Restaurant, Port of Spain, yesterday, announced the plans for increasing race days. O’Brien, said the ARC have great hopes for the 2003 racing season. “We can envisage an increase in racedays per month at the latter part of the year when the 2003 two-year-old crop begins racing.” he said. O’Brien also touched on the amount of imported animals brought in last year and said from all reports there is considerable interest by owners in purchasing two-year-olds at the Ocala Sales in April. “This sign augurs well for the future,” he said.

O’Brien stated that he is quite aware that stakes are the engine that drives the industry, and once it is adequate and paid on time, local horseracing will improve further thereby generating more competitive racing and more betting, ensuring more revenue to the ARC and BLB. In this regards, O’Brien, said, “Together with the Betting Levy Board, we are actively pursuing and increase in stakes, which hopefully will come in June.” O’Brien is also looking at ways of making his punters happy with their returns on bets played with the ARC, and is hopeful that Government will address its call for reduced betting taxes on pari-mutual wagering. O’Brien also announced the continued sponsorship of the Triple Crown races by the CLICO Group Of Companies, which have also agreed to keep in place the incentives of $250,000 for winning the tripart West Indian Bred three-year-olds series and a further $750,000 for adding the Caribbean Champion Stakes to those prestigiuos races at the back end of the season.

Touching on the role of the media, O’Brien said he recognised and appreciates the exposure given to the sport and hopes it will continue. He apologised for the late start in hosting of the awards of the Tipsters competition which ended in December, but said it was due to the Jetsam Awards Function and the relaying of the sand track,  new projects the ARC had undertaken early in the year which stretched their resources to the limit. Roop Chan Chadeesingh, Chairman of the Betting Levy Board, in his short address asked that the media forget the negatives and forge a positive role to carry racing forward. He stated that the BLB went out on a limb last year to help with the importation of horses and the local breeding industry said they will continue to play the lead role in all aspects of the industry. “We have set up a committee and presently in negotiations with GTEC and other companies to set up entertainment centres.

Before year end,  two will be erected in San Fernando and Port of Spain, and promised when money is generated, additional centres will be added at Arima, Chaguanas and Tobago. Chadeesingh said there  is a likelihood of co-mingled betting on both American and English racing, stating negotiations are currently underway. “It is one of our major plans which will bring in millions in revenue,” he enlightened. Chadeesingh also said $800,000 more was collected in taxes fron private betting shops last year. He noted the racing industry went through lean times but said it now has  young brilliant minds which he hopes will be taking the sport back to the top. He disclosed the BLB will be the new sponsors of the tipsters competition and promised an increase in prize incentives in each catagory.

PORT ELIZABETH:  Defending champions Australia beat Sri Lanka by 48 runs in a rain-interrupted semi-final at St George’s Park yesterday to qualify for their third consecutive Cricket World Cup final.

Australia improved their record winning roll to 16 in one-dayers and, once again, a pace attack spearheaded by Brett Lee’s three wickets battered and bruised the Sri Lankans. Chasing 213 runs for an upset, Sri Lanka slumped to 123 for seven in 38.1 overs before rain ended the match. The 1996 champions needed 172 to win at the time of the interruption, according to the Duckworth-Lewis method for rain-enforced revisions. After Andrew Symonds’ unbeaten 91 dug Australia out of trouble and helped them reach their  highest total in three matches here — 212 for seven in 50 overs — McGrath and Lee reduced Sri Lanka to 78 for seven after 25 overs. It was a mere formality from there.

 “It was vital to get early wickets,” said skipper Ricky Ponting. “We took wickets and kept it very tight. Sri Lanka was always under fair bit of pressure.” Ponting said he always backed his team to win after posting what he thought was a borderline total. “It was a very good win again today I thought. The partnership in the middle really set us up to a respectable total on the board. “Then our bowlers came out and did the job very, very well. In all, it was a very pleasing day for us.” Lee took 3-35 in eight overs to increase his tally to 20 wickets for the tournament. Sri Lanka never recovered from the destructive six-over opening burst by Lee, when he bowled at almost 100 mph and removed Marvan Atapattu (14), Hashan Tillakaratne (3) and Avishka Gunawardene (1). Glenn McGrath removed Sanath Jayasuriya and Andy Bichel threw down the stumps to run out Aravinda de Silva as Sri Lanka slumped to 51 for five.

Jayasuriya said the batting lineup again crumbled, like it did in the 96-run loss to the Aussies in the opening Super Six match. “We let ourselves down today,” said Jayasuriya. “Again, the batting let us down really badly, the middle order collapsed again.” The bowling was much better, with Jayasuriya and de Silva getting two wickets apiece and Chaminda Vaas picking up three for 34 to increase his total to 23 for the tournament, a new World Cup record. Australian legspinner Shane Warne and New Zealand paceman Geoff Allott shared the old record, both taking 20 wickets at the last World Cup in England. Lee claimed Atapattu and Tillakaratne with two of the quickest deliveries in the match. He clocked 160.1 kph (99.48 mph) to uproot Atapattu’s off stump a ball after the opener was dropped by Brad Hogg at point. Then another quick ball had Tillakaratne edging to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.

Earlier Symonds played his second memorable innings of the tournament to guide Australia out of danger after Vaas took two wickets in his first seven overs. His 118-ball innings including a six and seven boundaries. He also survived a missed stumping on 37 when he was beaten by a Jayasuriya ball but Sangakkara failed to glove it cleanly. In Australia’s opening match of the tournament, Symonds belted 143 off 125 balls against Pakistan at the Wanderers, just hours after it was revealed team-mate Shane Warne had to leave the tournament to face doping charges.

Australia’s early batting overshadowed an amazing show of sportsmanship by vice-captain Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist, who hit 22 off 20 balls, thought he got a glove off de Silva’s second delivery and it skidded onto his pads and popped up for wicketkeeper Sangakkara. Umpire Rudi Koertzen was unmoved, however, Gilchrist walked off of his own volition to the surprise of Sri Lanka, his Australian team-mates and the crowd. Australia will meet the winner of tomorrow’s semi-final between 1983 champion India and minnow Kenya at the Wanderers, Johannes-burg, on Sunday.

PORT ELIZABETH: Batsman Aravinda de Silva announced his retirement from all international cricket yesterday, moments after Sri Lanka’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Australia.

The 37-year-old played 93 Tests and 308 one-dayers and took part in five World Cups. He was the “Man-of-the-Match” with a century against Australia in the 1996 World Cup final when Sri Lanka won the trophy. Whatmore, speaking before yesterday’s 48-run defeat, said: “Aravinda has been a terrific player in the Sri Lanka team for a long, long time.” The 37-year-old right-hander made his debut against England at Lord’s in August 1984, playing against Ian Botham and David Gower. Team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan would have been 12 at the time. He made 6,361 Test runs at an average of 42.97. He made 9,284 one-day runs, the third highest individual tally in one-day history behind Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin. De Silva, who also had successful stints with Kent and Auckland, announced his Test retirement in October.

DURBAN: Sourav Ganguly and his Indian lineup will be more surprised than anyone if Kenya continues their fairy-tale run at the Cricket World Cup and reaches the March 23 final.

India, on a seven-match winning roll, are against the African minnows in a semi-final at Kingsmead tomorrow. Kenya are the first non-Test nation to reach the semi-finals at a World Cup, and are concerned less about who they play than how will they play. The Kenyans managed something of a dress-rehearsal for the “semis” when they met India at Newlands, Cape Town, on March 7 in a Super Six match. Although Kenya lost by six wickets, they took enough heart out of that match to lift themselves for a victory over Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein on March 12 to seal their place in the penultimate round. Now, the thinking in the Kenyan camp is that a hard match against Australia in the final Super Six match of the tournament at Kingsmead on Sat-urday has prepared them for what seems to be an impossible task in the rematch with India.

However, the Indians have lifted themselves to a new level since their last match with Kenya, and look as if they can take on and beat any team. “We have the best batting lineup in the world,” said offspinner Harbhajan Singh. With Sachin Tendulkar spearheading that lineup with a World Cup record 586 runs so far, there aren’t many who’d disagree. Ganguly and Virender Sehwag add extra explosiveness, while Rahul Dravid brings solidity to the middle order in an extraordinarily well-balanced batting list.             

HAMPTON International Games chairman Rawle Raphael has led an eight-man team including ex-Minister of Education Cuthbert Joseph to a meeting with a Permanent Secretary of Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Centre of their discussion at the meeting was Hampton’s  request for a government grant or soft loan of $10 million in their thrust  to earn Grand Prix status for the games in the next four years. Also on the Hampton team were National Flour Mills chief executive officer Michael Potella, TTUTA president Trevor Oliver, Inskip Diaz, George Henry, Ashwin Creed and Learie Scipio. Hampton will stage the 29th edition of the games at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on May 3 and 4. Heats have already started.

Raphael wrote to PM Manning, Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Roger Boynes and Tourism Minister Pennelope Beckles since December 2 last, seeking a meeting to discuss the $10 million which he termed a “subvention or soft loan.” In his letter he told PM Manning, ex-Olympic 200 metres gold medallist Don Quarrie who is associated with the International Association of Athletic Federation, advised that there is every likelihood Grand Prix status can be achieved even before 2007. Raphael claimed that should the $10 million be loaned to Hampton, this could be repaid over a five-year period. And the chairman pointed to the US$ multi-million benefit the country could derive from the games.

Already, big names like current World 100 metres record holder Tim Montgomery of the United States, countrymen Justin Gatlin recent winner of the World Indoor Championship 60 metres in Birmingham, England, Coby Miller and Tim Harden are among the men who have indicated their willingness to compete at the games. And top women,  100 metres specialist Zhanna Pintusevich, Debbie Ferguson and Jamaican Tanya Lawrence who chased home world sprint queen Marion Jones in several races last season are also listed to compete. Last year, then World record holder Maurice Greene, Gail Devers and Marie Jose Perec were among the big names at the games.

After an absence of five years,  Jerome Joseph, 25, has made an impressive return to competition and is joint leader  after six rounds with one more round remaining in the New India Assurance  National Chess Championship.

This is in the second  qualifier of the East Zone at the Arima Government Secondary School on weekends. Joseph, who attented  Holy Cross and St Mary’s Colleges where he played as a top junior went on to further his studies at the University of  the West Indies (UWI),  St Augustine. He  defeated two of last year’s finalists — National Master John Raphael  and  Kirby Hope.  Joseph’s other victims are Ian Ali, Rawle Henry and  Carl Jacobs. David Jones defeated Jerome Joseph in the sixth round  to remain in contention.

The championships, organised by the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Association are again sponsored by New India Assurance. This is the second of three qualifiers from each zone (North/West, East, South/Central and Tobago). Three players from each zone in Trinidad  and two from Tobago will qualify to meet  defending champion Fide Master Ryan Harper in the finals. Already qualifying from the North/West Zone are Fide Master Mario Merritt, Fide Master Frank Yee  and  veteran National Master Cecil Lee. Set to qualify from the East Zone are Jerome Joseph,  National Master John Raphael, who represented us at the 35th  World Chess Olympiad held in Slovenia last October, and either David Jones or Kirby Hope. The third qualifier for a place in the finals is at the Education Block, UWI beginning on Saturday, March 29. Registration closes at 2.30 pm. Players interested in taking part can contact:  P Araujo at 637-5702,  Dr G Boyce at 640-1118,  David Jones at 667-8574 or Sean Pascall at 664-0214

Monday saw stars rising out of the east as the NGC/Express Secondary Schools Basketball Association Eastern Conference finals tipped off at the Maloney Indoor Facility, Maloney.

The Under-15 boys of Sangre Grande and Barataria Junior Secondary Schools started the action with a 49-32 win for Grande after they led 18-16 at the half. Even though Barataria’s Teddy Peloi scored a match-high 13 points and Dwayne Ottley scored eight, Grande’s John Stewart, Eddie Keer and Keith Williams led their team to victory with scores of 12, 10 and 9 respectively with a lot of hard work. St Augustine Senior, still reeling from their Under-20 semi-final loss, were in the Under-17 final to prove a point and played aggressively and, at one point in the first half, secured a 21-point lead over the Arima Senior Comprehensive team.

Though St Augustine never gave up their lead, the Arima boys at one point cut the lead to four but still went under 82-70 at the final whistle. Arima’s Michael Guy was the match’s top scorer with 31 and team-mate Querido Nero’s 25 proved that they had good fighting spirit. But it was not enough to suppress the might of St Augustine’s Tegan Pemberton who scored 20 and Stefan Dillon who finished with 19. Then came the most one-sided match of the finals when Toco Composite ran over the girls of Barataria Junior Secondary 45-7, after leading 24-1 at the halfway point. Barataria’s Princess Martin was ineffective yet she scored a team-high six points and Amy Seepaul put in the other point. Toco’s Angel Ottley and Abigail Thomas had no trouble scoring as they ended the match with 14 and 11 respectively.

Like Malick Secondary the previous day, Toco were hoping to take both female and Under-20 titles but they also fell short of this dream going down 75-66 to league debutantes Johnson’s Finishing School. Toco exhibited poor finishing missing seven lay-ups in a row and were punished by Johnson’s, who scored their first four baskets from behind the three-point line and took the first half 37-23. Johnson’s Keon Williams continued to put in three-pointers in the second half and ended the match with 13 to his name but Fabrice Fisher preferred a more personal approach and drove to the basket with increased frequency as the game progressed to end with a game high 40 points and the tall Akiel Gay made sure the rebounds went to his team and even scored a few to end on 11. Toco’s Clinton Glasgow and Mikel Courtney could only manage 20 and 17 respectively, which were not enough to help their team to victory. The winners of the Eastern Conference finals are to meet the Northern Conference at the St Paul’s Street Facility while Southern Conference winners will travel to Tobago for a nationwide Champion of Champions. Both matches are on today.