PORT ELIZABETH: Australian skipper Ricky Ponting and his New Zealand counterpart Stephen Fleming agreed the use of the new ball will dictate the outcome of their Cricket World Cup Super Six match at St. George’s Park.
Australia square up against a determined New Zealand, and although a loss won’t harm the defending champions’ semifinal aspirations, they want to beat Stephen Fleming’s side and dent New Zealand’s progress. Australia regard New Zealand as a danger in a sudden-death match and are doing everything to avoid that. New Zealand must beat either Australia or India to qualify for the semifinal. If New Zealand qualify fourth, a trans-Tasman semifinal here is unavoidable. “That’s an element that’s important to both sides,” Fleming agreed. “On that type of wicket it’s a game of attrition. If the match is not won in the 30th over, it will go down to the wire.” Fleming said winning was the only way for New Zealand to ensure a semifinal spot, and he was confident it could be done. “We want to just win matches. More than anything is another great opportunity to play Australia in a World Cup situation,” he said. “But we haven’t thought much past tomorrow. It’s obviously a key match for us.”
Fleming said the pitch might require changes to the lineup, although he expected Chris Cairns’ medium pace to play a big part . A fitness test before the start will give Fleming an idea how much Cairns can bowl. The 32-year-old allrounder has bowled just eight overs in six matches here, taking two wickets for 54 in the tournament. He took two wickets for 16 in the six-wicket win over Zimbabwe, his first wickets since coming back from a year off with knee problems. “I certainly want him as an option,” said Fleming, who also thinks Shane Bond is a weapon against the Aussies.
Bond’s bowling was instrumental in ousting Australia from the tri-series finals when he took 21 wickets at the start of 2002. “I’d love him to knock the top off Australia. He gets good shape to the left handers with good pace —- and that’s the key to restricting Australia.” Australia had a miserable match against England at Port Elizabeth and escaped with a two-wicket win with two balls to spare. Ponting is determined not to repeat those mistakes. Chasing England’s modest 204 for eight, Australia crashed to 135 for eight before Michael Bevan and “Man-of-the-Match” Andy Bichel saw the side home with unbeaten 74 and 34.
“The vital times in this match will be with the new ball … whoever copes with using and playing the new ball,” said Ponting. “That’s what we didn’t do the last match here. “When we went out to bat, with the new ball being harder and with a bigger seam, we knew it was going to do more then than it would later in the match. Unfortunately we got ourselves into a fair bit of trouble.” Ponting singled out the top-order batting and the allrounders as New Zealand’s strengths. While Australia enjoy a 57-25 win-loss ratio over New Zealand, World Cup matches have always been closely fought. Australia lead 3-2 but New Zealand have always had a trick or to for their trans-Tasman neighbours.
JOHANNESBURG: India stormed into the Cricket World Cup semi-finals yesterday with a 183-run win over Sri Lanka in their Super Six match at The Wanderers.
Javagal Srinath wrecked the batting with four of the first five wickets as Sri Lanka tumbled to 109 all out from 23 overs. It was India’s biggest win over the 1996 champions and Sri Lanka’s second lowest World Cup score. Srinath, 33, captured two wickets in his first over and finished with four for 35 from nine fierce and disciplined overs. Left-arm fast bowler Ashish Nehra finished with identical figures from seven. Chasing India’s formidable 292 for six, built on Sachin Tendulkar’s commanding 97, Sri Lanka were soon in deep trouble.
Srinath removed his first three victims for ducks, claiming Marvan Atapattu and Jehan Mubarak in his first over before trapping in-form Aravinda De Silva lbw to make it 15 for four in the fourth over. Left-armer Zaheer Khan dismissed Mahela Jayawardene leg before wicket for a duck and captain Sanath Jayasuriya (12) hit Srinath straight to Mohammad Kaif at cover. Srinath’s performance followed yet another Tendulkar master class. The Indian maestro agonisingly missed a record fifth World Cup century but helped India amass a daunting total after Jayasuriya put the opposition in to exploit any early life in the pitch after overnight rain.
Tendulkar was out for 97, edging a sweep against de Silva to jubilant wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara after moving past his previous World Cup record aggregate of 523 scored at the 1996 World Cup. He has scored 571 runs so far at the 2003 tournament at an average of 71.38 with a strike rate of 90.3. The India opener, who was dismissed for 98 in a first round match against Pakistan, said he was disappointed to miss a century again. “But I’m very excited to be in the semi-finals,” he said. “It was a good track to bat on and Javagnal and Ashish bowled really well. To be able to extract so much pace and movement was something extraordinary.” Tendulkar shared an opening partnership of 153 with Virender Sehwag, who recorded his highest score of the tournament with 66.
Yet another left-arm pace bowler Chaminda Vaas, the tournament’s leading wicket taker, led a bowling fightback with consecutive maidens to Tendulkar before returning to bowl captain Saurav Ganguly (48) and Yuvraj Singh (5) in his final spell. India’s seventh victory ensured them of a semi-final place along with defending champions Australia. Both teams have 16 points. Sri Lanka’s semi-final hopes now depend on a Zimbabwe victory over Kenya tomorrow followed by a win themselves over the Zimbabweans on Saturday.
GREAT interest is continuing to be generated across the Caribbean for the upcoming Caribbean Aerobic Championships II, the final of which will be staged on May 31 at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo.
The event is poised to establish itself as a major attraction as Government attempts to promote Trinidad and Tobago as a preferable sports tourism destination. In furtherance of this objective, organiser of the competition, well known broadcaster and events co-ordinator Selwyn Melville is making preparations for an influx of aerobic enthusiasts bidding for attractive prizes and incentives. “Trinidad and Tobago is seen as an aerobic centre and the participants from around the region are keen to come here to develop their standard of performance,” said Melville.
Among the overseas countries taking part are Puerto Rico, St Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Jamaica, who will be participating for the first time. Also an American contingent will be coming following their successful debut last year. “This is a positive step for the sport and the competition is set to grow from strength to strength. The foundation has been laid,” said Melville. Apart from the first prize of $10,000, Melville said there will be attractive incentives for spectators attending the finals who by their attendance demonstrate their interest in the a healthy lifestyle which is the underlying theme of the championship.
Melville said last year the main sponsor was Nestle but this year he is exploring other strategic alliances and already several corporate entities have indicated their willingness to get on board. He said the tournament last year set the bar for competition of its kind which was infused with a unique Trinidadian flavour. “It was very tough and fast-paced, full of energy. It will be very hard to top the local competitors who have proved they can hold their own,” said Melville. The Endurance event was won by Gerard Forde while Nicole Cain was second. Zonal competition for the finalists will be staged in North East, Tobago and South-Central in the Pairs, Individual and Team events.
Trinidad and Tobago cricketer Dinanath Ramnarine will miss this country’s final round Carib Beer Series regional cricket clash against the Leewards in St. Thomas due to the death of his mother Basdai yesterday.
Ramnarine, who also missed the match against Jamaica which ended yesterday at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, has been at his ill mother’s side since his return from Barbados last week. Since then she has been fighting to stay alive but gave in yesterday morning. Basdai and her husband Ramnarine Ramsaroop were the parents of nine children, with the West Indies spinner being the youngest. Ramnarine, who is president of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), said yesterday he was happy to spend the last few days with his mother but her death was a tremendous blow. The TT team as well as the West Indies cricketers have sent their condolences to the Ramnarine family as Charlieville, central Trinidad mourns the loss of a “mother” of the village. Basdai will be cremated tomorrow at the Waterloo Cremation Site at 11 am.
PowerGen cricket club will be looking to overcome little fancied Cosmos Sports today in the final round of the 2003 Carib Cup cricket series.
After their second round loss to First Citizen’s Clarke Road United, the defending champions need to win today to assure themselves a place in the quarter-finals of the series which begin next week. Cosmos are a tough team to beat at home and the Williamsville crowd is expected to come out in their numbers to lend support to their cricketers. PowerGen however will be buoyed by the fact that they are in the semi-finals of the Carib Sunday League after their emphatic victory over Police in the quarter-finals last weekend. Another team looking to advance today is Ceramic Trinidad Merr-yboys. They have a one win one loss record so far and a win against Bri-tish American Aranguez today will give them a chance of capturing their first national limited overs title. All matches are carded to get underway at 4 pm and will be played over two days.
CARIB CUP MATCHES Group “A” Merryboys vs Aranguez at Diego Martin. Moosai vs QPCC at Honeymoon Park. Group “B” Comet vs Police at Pierre Road. Endeavour vs Munroe Road at Cunupia. Group “C” Preysal vs Central Sports at Inshan Ali Park. Couva vs Wanderers at Couva. Group “D” Cosmos vs PowerGen at Williamsville. Clarke Road vs Mayo at Wilson Road.
Breanne McIvor and Roger Greenidge of the Caribbean Cross-training Club won the 13-15 age group of the Lucozade Sport Triathlon on Sunday at Chaguaramas.
McIvor, who finished in 27.03 minutes was hardly challenged by second-place winner Aimee Browne (30.54) and now has 400 points in the four-race series. It also means that she has the first lien on the $10,000 in scholarship prizes offered by the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre. Second in the Boys 13-15 was Ian Welch-Phillips (33.25) ahead of Martin Brown (36.10). Maria Gooding (34.25), (sister of triathlon champion Jason), who just turned 13, finished third, after sprinting home ahead of Cassey Brown (34.47).
In the Under-9 category, Yuri Jan (13.41) and Chelsie Redon (16.26) were the winners. Dylan Thomas and Mickel Browne were second and third to Jan, while Danielle Thomas and Alexandra Ross were second and third to Redon. Adrielle Mahabir and Matthew Charles won the 10-12 age group. The full results will be posted on the TTTA website at www.geocities.com/triathlontrinidad. Queries about the results should be directed to TTTA vice-president Diance Hender-son. Next junior triathlon event is on July 13 but the seniors will be in action in a sprint event on April13 at Chaguaramas.
TRINIDADIAN Queen’s Counsel Karl Hudson-Phillips will be installed today as one of the first 18 judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ceremony will take place at the ICC’s headquarters in the Hague, Holland. There will be several Trinidadians present to witness the inauguration of the court — a court which received the backing of 89 countries. At the 44th session of the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, President Arthur NR Robinson, the then Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, called for the establishment of the ICC to deal with transnational crimes. Robinson arrived in the Hague yesterday morning to attend the inauguration ceremony later today. With him were his son David, Aide-de-Camp Major Anthony Phillip-Spencer, Lenore Dorset, executive assistant to the President, Special Assistant Napier Pillai, Debra Coryat, International Relations Officer and Professor Courtney Bartholomew, medical doctor. Minister of Foreign Affairs Knowlson Gift was also expected to arrive in Holland yesterday for the ceremony.
Hudson-Phillips, who took time off from the Dhanraj Singh murder trial in San Fernando, was elected a judge during voting in February in New York. The TT QC was also unable to appear in Port-of-Spain yesterday for the prosecution in the case against two former Government Ministers charged with offences arising out of the Piarco Airport Project. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will install the 18 judges at a ceremony to be televised worldwide. But Canadian Philioppe Kirch is among the leading candidates to take the job of President of the ICC. He is currently Canada’s Ambassador to Sweden. Nine of the judges will be full-time judges, while the others will operate part-time. Hudson-Phillips is expected to be a part-time judge.
Advocates say the court will at last provide a forum for punishing those accused of the most serious crimes against mankind, including genocide. But critics say it will become a tool for harassment, propaganda and politically motivated prosecutions, especially against Americans, given their extensive military and civilian presence abroad, and the anti-American climate that has intensified since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Bush administration removed the United States’ signature from the 1998 Rome Treaty establishing the court and adopted legislation empowering the president to use “all means necessary” to free Americans from the court’s custody. But 89 other countries are on board as the court enters a field of international jurisprudence that has been developing since the Nuremberg trials after the Second World War. The new court is modelled on the temporary tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor and Sierra Leone. Optimists say it may take two years before the court is ready to try its first case. It would need hundreds of staff members to handle a single case, yet it is starting out with a team of just 62, including judges. It is in a temporary building with no courtroom, detention cells, trial lawyers or enforcement arm to make arrests.
THE North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) is now faced with paying an employee close to $700,000 or letting the employee remain in the position currently held, reliable sources told Newsday yesterday.
Sources said that Jenny Gobin, the NWRHA’s Vice President (Quality) was hired as quality co-ordinator and a decision was later taken to reclassify that position to her current one which carries a monthly salary of $18,000. However, it was later discovered that Gobin’s position had not been advertised, but that it had been viewed as a lateral move since the position had been re-designated from quality co-ordinator to Vice President (Quality). But, sources said, the situation became an issue when the matter was reported to the Public Services Association (PSA), who reportedly wrote to NWRHA chairman Patrick Watson saying that Gobin’s job should have been advertised.
As a consequence, sources said Gobin was asked to step down from her current position. Newsday learned that Gobin contacted her lawyers and the matter is now before the NWRHA board. Sources said when calculated, close to $700,000 will have to be paid to Gobin if she agrees to step down. The figure represents loss of earnings for two years, together with gratuity and other allowances. NWRHA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Lennard Jagessar confirmed that there is a matter involving Gobin before the board. “We are dealing with it and we don’t know what is going to happen but we hope the matter wil be resolved amicably,” Jagessar said via telephone.
The CEO said the authority has been sued. He said a decision had been made but declined to say what the decision was, stating that he could not breach the board’s confidence. However, former head of NWRHA’s Human Resource Committee, Stephenson Sarjeant said in an interview yesterday that the NWRHA met Gobin in the quality co-ordinator’s job. Sarjeant said in view of the new emphasis of the delivery of quality health care, there was a requirement to set up a division of the organisation. As a result, Sarjeant said, the job of quality co-ordinator needed to be redesignated to Vice President (Quality) and be reclassified to become part of the executive team. “It’s not an abnormal practice,” Serjeant said, pointing out that his stance was a principled one and that he did not care who has other agendas.
Sarjeant also said he could not think of a single case where reclassification was done and the incumbent had not assumed the position. “It is an industrial relations principle,” Sarjeant said.
By CHARLEEN THOMASFORMER UNC Government Ministers John Humphrey and Brian Kuei Tung have been summoned to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Project tomorrow. When the inquiry resumed yesterday after a one-week break, former Chairman of the Airports Authority (AA) Tyrone Gopee appeared for the first time.
Gopee was summoned to cross examine witnesses who implicated him in the project. However the matter was adjourned to next Monday since Gopee is retaining another attorney, Fyard Hosein. He is already represented by attorney Nyree Alfonso. In addition, transcripts of the evidence against Gopee were not made available to Alfonso due to an “unfortunate mix-up”, therefore she was unable to proceed with the questioning of witnesses. Present to be questioned were Sandra Marchack, Peter Cateau, Eric Pierre and Dr Victor Isaac. NIPDEC’s General Manager Margaret Thompson and project manager Kenneth Critchlow are also to be questioned by Gopee. They will all return on Monday.
Prior to the adjournment of the ten minute sitting to Wednesday at 9.30 am, Chairman Clinton Bernard announced that on that date former Housing Minister John Humphrey and former Finance Minister Brian Kuei Tung are expected to appear. They have been summoned to question witnesses who have implicated them. However when Newsday contacted Humphrey yesterday at lunchtime, he said he had not received correspondence from the Secretariat of the inquiry. He said when he receives such correspondence, he will decide if he will appear. Efforts to contact Kuei Tung to find out if he will appear proved futile.
THE State called three witnesses yesterday in the trial of Dhanraj Singh for the murder of chairman of the Rio Claro/Mayaro Regional Corporation Hansraj Sumairsingh.
One of them was Sumairsingh’s son, Visham, who told the jury in the San Fernando First Assize Court how he discovered the body of his father at the family’s beach house in Mayaro on December 31, 2000. Visham said that he last saw Sumairsingh at their home on December 30, while he (Sumair-singh) was preparing to go to a beach house the family owns at Gran Lagoon in Mayaro. Visham said he spoke to Sumairsingh on the telephone that day around 3:30 pm and he then left for San Fernando. Questioned by acting assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Devan Rampersad, Visham said that on the following day he was awaken by his stepmother, Sandra Sumairsingh, around 2 pm and together with his sister, Kavita, they went to the beach house.
He testified before Justice Melville Baird and the jury of eight men and four women that he observed a Bluebird car parked at the side of the house. The two front doors were open, Visham testified, and the radio was on. He said that two lights in the front part of the house were on and he heard the sound of a cooling fan coming from inside the house.
Visham told the jury that he went to the back of the house and tried to look through ventilation bricks. He said he saw the lower part of the legs of his father at the doorway next to the living room. Visham told the court that he prised the back door open with a piece of iron and went inside. The witness said that he saw the body of his father lying in a corner of the living room. The body was next to the front door and there was blood on the walls and door.
Visham testified that he went outside the house and spoke to his sister and step-mother after which he went to the house next door and telephoned the police. Visham testified that he later identified his father’s body at the Forensic Sciences Centre in Port of Spain on Janaury 3, 2000. The witness was cross-examined by attorney Prakash Ramadhar who asked him if he was aware that his father’s cell phone had been reported in the newspaper as having been found in a boat. The witness answered yes.
The other witness called was Police Sergeant, Trevor Alexander. He testified that he was a police photographer who took photos of the house and the deceased body. The jury was shown the photographs, except for two which were withheld on instructions by Justice Baird.
Rajcoomar is holding for Karl Hudson-Phillips, Queen’s Counsel, together with Ramadhar and Jenner Hudson-Phillips, for the defence. Gregory Hoods, a police draughtsman also testified. The trial will resume this morning.
