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Vasbert Drakes gets a big hug from his son Dominic as they relaxed at Kensington Oval yesterday evening.Barbadian cricketer Vasbert Drakes has answered a last-minute call from the West Indies selectors and is ready to play a starring role in the upcoming International Cricket Council mini World Cup in Sri Lanka.Drakes, who has been out of West Indies cricket for seven years due to the old eligibility rule, leaves the island today to join the rest of the 14-man side.The 33-year-old turned down a lucrative contract with South African provincial side Border to wear the Windies colours."Border has been loyal to me for many years, but at the end of the day, which little boy growing up in the Caribbean wouldn’t want to play for the West Indies," he said.

	Manpreet Gony’s 17 wickets at the IPL made him the highest wicket-taker for Chennai and fourth highest overall © Cricinfo Ltd

Manpreet Gony, the Punjab fast bowler, will join the Indian squad for the Bangladesh tri-series as a replacement for Sreesanth, who was ruled out after suffering a side strain.Gony, 24, has had a remarkable ascent since making his List A debut a little more than three months ago. He came into national reckoning during the Indian Premier League, where he made a string of impressive performances for the Chennai Super Kings, and was instrumental in taking his team to the final. He finished with 17 wickets from 16 matches at 26.05, which made him the leading wicket-taker for Chennai and fourth highest overall.He was picked up by Chennai after finishing as the highest-wicket taker in the Deodhar Trophy, taking nine from three matches at 14.66. Gony made his first-class debut in December last year against Baroda. He said the IPL was a great learning experience for him.”The IPL has given me great exposure. You rarely get a chance to bowl to so many world class batsmen and this experience has made me a better bowler,” Gony told PTI. Kepler Wessels (the Super Kings coach) made a slight adjustment to my action, helped me hit the deck harder and bowl at right areas.”But, I will look to have a fresh start when I bowl in the tri-series, where I will also get the opportunity to bowl a longer spell, which should help me show my abilities.”He added that his selection took him by surprise. “After an ordinary first-class debut, getting the call from an IPL franchise came as a surprise,” he said. “However, I feel taking eight wickets in two Deodhar Trophy matches for North Zone helped me catch the eye of the team owners.”Sreesanth was assessed in Bangalore on Friday, after which it was decided that he would need two weeks to recover from his injury. He will undergo rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy and is expected to be fit in time for the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s decision to include Performance Based Emoluments clause in the original players’ contract offered to the Zimbabwe-bound national squad could lead to the cricketers becoming easy prey for bookmakers.PCB Monday announced cash incentives for individual performances.A player, besides getting his usual match and slab fee, will have earn additional 20 per cent reward if Pakistan win either a Test or a One-day International. Similarly, the same will be deducted in case Pakistan lose a match. But the real problem lies in the cash awards made public for individual performances. PCB promises to hand out Rs 100,000 each to anyone scoring a century, claiming five wickets in innings, holding four catches or run-outs and wicket-keeper effecting four dismissals in an innings.In addition, a batsman making 200 or more in an innings expects to earn another Rs 250,000. Another amount of Rs 200,000 will be dished to any bowler picking up six or more wickets in an innings.To earn these rewards, the players will have to toil extremely hard in the sun to achieve the desired milestones. But what if a shady character, without arousing any suspicion, somehow manages to contact some players and offer more attractive bounties.For instance, a player just might think why he has to put in extra effort to get what the PCB has offered. He would easily strike a hefty deal with one of the bookies and under perform and yet get more without sweating much. Suppose a player is offered Rs 200,000 for scoring, say something like 20-40 or take a couple of wickets.To stop this menace, it would had been wiser for PCB’s top brass to reward players at the end of the tour without making prior announcement as they did Monday.

In a significant indicator to the future, Wavell Hinds has been named West Indies’ vice-captain on its current tour of Bangladesh.It is an undisguised hint that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) had identified the 26-year-old Jamaican left-handed opener to take over as captain when Carl Hooper, ten years his senior, leaves the scene."He’s an independent thinker and a strong personality," was the assessment of Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler who captained Hinds on the West Indies "A" team to Bangladesh and India in late in 1998 and who has followed him lately in his new role as television analyst."He has his own views on the game and won’t be swayed by majority opinion," Bishop added.President Reverend Wes Hall announced last month that the WICB would organise leadership courses next year for some of its younger players. Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Ryan Hinds are likely to be others included.With Hooper now 36 and present vice-captain Ridley Jacobs 35, it is clearly time for a younger man to be given the responsibility of leadership.After coming through the system by representing West Indies at Under-19 and "A" team level, Hinds has played 28 Tests since his debut against Zimbabwe in Port-of-Spain in 2000 and 64 One-Day Internationals. But he is yet to lead Jamaica, who have retained 31-year-old Robert Samuels as captain over the past three seasons.West Indies have appointed experienced players as vice-captain in the last few years – Sherwin Campbell, Brian Lara and Jacobs – rather than promote one of the emerging youngsters.Now Hinds has been officially endorsed and could find himself as captain of the West Indies team of the future within the next couple of years.

Somerset Second Eleven have suffered the effects of the weather on both of the first two days of their three day championship match against Yorkshire at Taunton.Yesterday the visitors scored 250 for 3 before the rains fell to put paid to the day just before teatime.Today play did not get underway until 1.30pm, and then after just 8.5 overs the rains fell again and play was abandoned for the day with Yorkshire having taken their score onto 290 for 3.With heavy rain having fallen since play ended, both teams could well face another frustrating day on Friday.

Any player representative recognition by the International Cricket Council (ICC) has to be when all Test players are represented by that body.When addressing a press conference at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo onSaturday, ICC president Malcolm Gray and chief executive Malcolm Speed spoke in detailabout ICC’s views on the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) and player representation.Gray said: “As a central body, it will be easier for us todeal with a body that represents the players, as compared with theindividuals.”Some countries do have well-organised players’ associations. In turnthose country player associations have come together to form FICA.However, It is the belief of the board of ICC that FICA at presentdoes not really represent all the international players,” he added.Gray explained the reasons for FICA not being recognised as theglobal players body. Without specifically naming any member boards,Gray definitely threw some darts at some members.He said: “There aresome national boards who do not believe in players being representedby player associations. A paper was presented to the ICC board to giveFICA more representation and the board didn’t agree with that.”There is a paper going forward to the next board meeting (to be heldon Monday and Tuesday in Colombo), whereby players will be given farbetter representation and voice in the management within ICC. Nowwhether that gets approved is something I can’t say,” said Gray.Having said that, Gray played the diplomatic card, “ICC respects thesovereignty and the right of the individual boards to have their ownviews, in regard to player management. It is not up to us to interferein the internal affairs of a country.”Chief executive Malcolm Speed elaborated on the player representationissue.”In seven countries there are player representative groups. In theother countries there are no such representative groups, and they arequite vigorously opposed to having player representative groups.”In October last year the management put forward a paper to the ICCboard that FICA be given limited recognition to be invited toparticipate in different forms of ICC meetings. First of all, thechief executives of the boards rejected that. They were led by thechief executives of the countries that do not have formal playerrepresentative groups.”Same recommendation went to the board and didn’t achieve thenecessary majority. For something to be resolved at the ICC executive board meeting, youneed seven of the full member countries to vote for it,” he added.The ICC management under the two Malcolms from Australia have now putthe onus on India’s BCCI to negotiate with the Indian players. Given what theICC management have to say about the player representation, it isquite apparent that the Indian players have to slug it out at homewith their board.

The Tasmanian Cricket Association’s Chief Executive, David Johnston, today announced 16 State contracted players and 2 Rookie contracted players.2002/2003 Tasmanian Contracted Players

• Jamie Cox
• Michael DiVenuto
• Daniel Marsh
• David Saker
• Gerard Denton
• Damien Wright
• Scott Kremerskothen
• Sean Clingeleffer
• Scott Mason
• Shannon Tubb
• Shane Jurgensen
• George Bailey
• Xavier Doherty
• Ben Oliver
• Luke Williams
• Michael Dighton

Rookies

• Ben Hilfenhaus
• Brett Geeves

The squad also includes Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson who are both Australian Cricket Board contracted players.The States must register between 14 and 20 State Player contracts and between 2 and 5 rookie contracts by September 28.