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Test cricket was hit hard by the two World Wars, and this topic has been brought into focus by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission this weekend as they seek to raise money and awareness during their 90th anniversary.A total of 21 Test players died in service, including several from the Commonwealth such as Albert ‘Tibby’ Cotter, the Australia fast bowler, and Reginald Schwarz, one of the quartet of South Africa googly bowlers in the Edwardian era. The War Graves Commission has set up an on-going exhibition in the Lord’s museum and has organised a charity match at Arundel on Sunday, August 12, featuring an Old England XI against a team of Anzac-South African club cricketers.Dozens of first-class players were lost, though the Commission – prompted no doubt by the current England-India series – could find only one Indian in the list. The Rawalpindi-born Vivian Chiodetti, a regular British Army soldier, played a match for Hyderabad before he was killed in Burma in 1942. The museum at Lord’s tells the Chiodetti story and features England players such as Hedley Verity, Colin Blythe and Ken Farnes.Cricket, with crude equipment, was played in unlikely places by battle-ready troops. The Australians played a game in view of the Turks at Gallipoli in 1915, trying to give the impression of normality and confidence while the entire force was being secretly evacuated from the beach area.Robert Graves recounts a game between officers and sergeants at Vermelles in France in 1915, when a bird cage with dead parrot in inside was used as the wicket. The game was abandoned when German machine gun fire at an aeroplane sprayed falling bullets dangerously close to the pitch. Jim Laker played in a match at El Alamein.Cotter was hit in the head by a sniper’s bullet in Palestine as he peered over a trench parapet and he died the same month in 1917 as his brother John, killed in France. Schwarz, twice surviving wounds, was admitted to hospital on the day of Armistice in 1918 and died of pneumonia seven days later.Blythe, the Kent left-arm spinner, is the only Test player with a gravestone inscription alluding to his cricketing eminence. He lies at rest in Belgium, killed by a shell blast at the age of 38 while working as an engineer in 1917.During the second World War, Lord’s was requisitioned by the War Office for the RAF and Te Oval was prepared as a prisoner of war camp that was never used, complete with wire cages on the playing surface.The Commission cares for graves and memorials for the 1.7 million dead at almost 23,000 locations in 150 countries.This article first appeared on https://www.charlierandallcricket.com/.

The UK government has said it will support the ECB if they decide to cancel Zimbabwe’s tour of England next year although denied reports it was considering a blanket ban on sportsmen from the country.The BBC’s programme cited “Downing Street sources” and said that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was keen to take a tough stance against the Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and that banning Zimbabweans from competing on British soil could be part of that.However, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said the government had been “surprised” by the story and added: “It is not the case that the Prime Minister is considering a blanket ban on Zimbabwe’s sportsmen.”The spokesman also said that a decision on Zimbabwe’s tour was down to the ECB. “If they decided they want to ban Zimbabwe, we would support them.”The future of the tour has been a long-running debate. The prospect of refusing to host Zimbabwe would run into strong opposition from the ICC and could put England’s staging of the ICC World Twenty20, due for June 2009, in jeopardy. Zimbabwe are due to play two Tests and three one-day internationals next summer although they are yet to return to the Test scene following their self-imposed suspension.The ECB would have to pay an estimated £225,000 in compensation under ICC rules if the one-day matches were cancelled. They have already held talks with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union to try to reach a financial settlement to call off the tour.A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said: “There are ongoing discussions between the government and the ECB, but no decisions have been made.”An ECB spokesman added the board would not comment until it had discussed the matter with government officials. Last month the foreign secretary David Miliband said a Zimbabwean tour of England would be inappropriate. “The situation in Zimbabwe is obviously deeply concerning. I think that bilateral cricket tours at the moment don’t send the right message about our concern.”

The first-ever coaching course organised by the Indian board for women coaches is underway at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. Those attending have been selected by the state associations and will take a Level A coaching test at the end of the camp.The course, which began last week, is being attended by several former players, including Anju Jain, the former India wicketkeeper who is now national selector for the women’s team. She will not be applying for any coaching jobs this year, she said, but wanted to take part to inform herself of new developments in the area. “As a former player and now as a selector, I’d like to give sensible advice to players,” she told Cricinfo. “That’s why I’m here.”The course is divided between interactive coaching classes and practical exercises on the field. The classes include discussions on writing a match plan, simulating a competitive match situation in the nets and safety procedures. In one class the group was divided into into five ‘teams’, with each given a problem to tackle in the nets – poor running between the wickets, bowlers bowling mechanically without thinking, a batsman hitting the ball in the air and getting out – and asked to come up with solutions.The women-only course was in response to demand, said Dr Kinjal Suratwala, a member of the NCA’s Sports Science department who is in charge of the coaching programme. “We have had many such courses for men. What we are concentrating on are basic skills, safety and first aid, fitness and efficient conduct of nets.”The course is seen as having various utilities. The first step is that the students take the Level A test and go back to their state associations. “Hopefully it will spread the message,’ Mahua, a former Bengal and East Zone player, said. “When officials in associations realise the NCA is producing women coaches they will be willing to pick them up.”Manjula Kishore, a former South Zone player, said the main benefit would be to empower women as coaches. “It will give women cricketers the chance to extend their careers in the game. We have played the game but we don’t know the fundamentals of coaching, of telling young kids how to apply what we know to their game. The point of this course is to have several full-fledged professional coaches go back into the system.”The former India opener, Arati Vaidya, believed the course would make the women’s game more competitive. “When there is no proper coaching you lose good players, especially among women. That is why [qualified] people like us are important and that is why this course is important.”

Shaun Pollock, the South Africa allrounder, has announced his retirement from international cricket following the second day’s play against West Indies in Durban. The current Test, his 108th, will be his last and the one-day series that follows the final matches for his country.”I’d like to thank Cricket South Africa for allowing me the opportunity of representing my country for the last 12 years,” Pollock told a press conference after the day’s play. “I thoroughly enjoy the honour and privilege of wearing the Protea badge and take with me some remarkable memories having played against some great players.”I made the decision at the start of the season that the West Indies series would be my last,” he said. “I have been fortunate to be in a team that has had the calibre of players to beat any opposition on any given day. I have made some wonderful friendships and have played against some remarkable characters.”Pollock, 34, regained his Test place for the deciding match against West Indies after not playing in the five-day game since January 2007. He currently stands on 420 Test wickets, the most by a South African, and 387 in ODIs. There is a chance he will finish with 400 in both forms depending on his success in the one-day series against West Indies.Pollock was thrust into the captaincy of South Africa in April 2000 when Hansie Cronje was drummed out of the game, and he faced the biggest challenge of his career – to lift a shocked and demoralised South African side. However, after a solid start to his captaincy, he lost some credibility after a 3-0 drubbing in Australia in 2001-02, and was later blamed for South Africa’s disastrous World Cup in which they failed to qualify for the Super Sixes.As a result, Pollock immediately lost the captaincy and was replaced by Graeme Smith. Though his nagging brilliance around off stump remained, his pace and ability to take wickets at the top of the order dipped in latter years.”I realise I have been blessed by God,” he said, “and feel I have nurtured my talents to the best of my abilities.”

Scorecard

England’s pace bowlers enjoyed a productive workout as they blew away a strong New Zealand Invitational XI batting line-up on the second day in Dunedin. The match ended in a draw, but that was almost irrelevant as this was never more than an early-tour loosener for the tourists.The home side’s top order contained four players likely to feature in the first Test next week, but replying to England’s overnight 369, they were skittled for 146. Even that represented a recovery as they had been 26 for 5 midway through the morning session. James Anderson and Matthew Hoggard shared six wickets while Steve Harmison grabbed two in a performance which improved after a wayward start.Rather than another two hours batting practice, Michael Vaughan enforced the follow-on and Monty Panesar took two wickets as the NZ Invitational XI closed on 102 for 3.”It’s always nice to knock a few of the batsmen you’re going to play against maybe next week over cheaply,” Vaughan said. “Steve gets better and better the longer he bowls, he was one of the reasons we went out and bowled again.”We’ve learnt a little bit about the conditions and the ball is swinging, which is good for us and hopefully that will continue. Before the game started we came up with a plan that we were going to bat a day and they were going to bat a day, but we bowled them out.”I thought there was an opportunity to get some more wickets and also to get some more overs in our legs as fielders and a bowling unit, which is important because we’ve only got the three-day game to go before the Test. We could have taken the option to bat on for a little bit, but I thought overs in the legs and in the field would be just as important.”The one downer for England was that Ryan Sidebottom was unable to bowl because of a hamstring strain he picked up in the last ODI on Saturday. He will sit out the three-day warm-up match at the same venue starting on Thursday.”We’re not concerned about him for the Test match at this stage and it’s a little bit of a precaution that he’ll miss the three-day game, but he has got a slight problem so there has to be some concern,” Vaughan said. “Hopefully over the next few days he’ll heal fast and he’ll be able to start bowling towards the end of the three-day game or when we arrive in Hamilton (for the first Test).”

Five counties will join UAE in a six-team event in the United Arab Emirates next March as part of their pre-season preparations.Essex, Lancashire, Somerset, Sussex and Yorkshire will all compete in the Arabian Cricket Challenge which will be held at the state-of-the-art Abu Dhabi Stadium with two matches in Sharjah.”Sussex and Essex came out on pre-season last year and played against each other in Abu Dhabi,” organiser Mathew Jackson told Cricinfo. “They enjoyed it so much that that they requested to play other counties this year.”The main problems facing counties with pre-season tours is the unknown standard of the opposition and uncertainty over the pitches they are likely to play on. By arranging county-standard opponents at top-class venues, those fears have been removed.The sides will play four 50-over matches – each of them will miss playing one other county – with a trophy for the winners. On most days there will be two games on each ground, with match starting in the morning followed by a day-night match.”The aim is to develop the cricket in the UAE,” Jackson said. “The climate and the proximity to the UK – it’s only six and half hours flying time – during the off season means that it could become like Florida where they hold baseball spring training.” While no official sponsor has yet been found, Jackson is in talks with several interested parties.The highlight of the event is what is believed to be the first competitive Roses match outside the UK (the sides met in a friendly in South Africa last year).The organisers will also be staging an Under-19s school tournament at the same time. It will feature sides from Worth, Wellington, Eastbourne and St Bedes in a round-robin 40-over competition.

The national selection committee announced a squad of 26 players to attend the third and final training and fitness camp to be held in Karachi. The camp, that runs from July 27 to August 6, will be supervised by Talat Ali with Haroon Rashid and Aaqib Javed serving as batting and bowling coaches respectively.Asim Kamal, thought by many as the perfect heir to Inzamam-ul-Haq, has been omitted from the third fitness camp even after being part of the 22 that took part in the second camp in Lahore. Five new faces, including fast bowler Mohammad Irshad, batsmen Shahid Yousuf, Khalid Latif, Khurram Manzoor and left-arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir have been added to the squad for the Karachi camp.Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, a prolific performer for Pakistan during the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, has been overlooked again for the camps. Naved, currently playing for Sussex, was neither named in the first two camps nor was he awarded a central contract.A 15-man squad for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa will be named at the end of the camp. According to sources, Younis Khan, who is currently playing county cricket in England, is most likely to be selected in the 15-member squad despite not being included in the list of 26 probables. The selected squad would then attend the final phase of the camp at Gaddafi Stadium from August 19 to 26.Squad: Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Najaf Shah, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Irshad, Khurram Manzoor, Shoaib Akhtar, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Hafeez, Rao Iftikhar, Imran Farhat, Sohail Tanveer, Yasir Hameed, Naveed Latif, Shoaib Malik, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Razzaq, Umer Gul, Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Shahid Yousuf, Misbah Ul Haq, Imran Nazir, Khalid Latif

Rahul Dravid has declared himself ready to open in the Boxing Day Test against Australia and he believes India’s promising middle-order prospects can no longer be ignored. While Dravid would not confirm if the plan was set in stone, India gave a strong indication of their strategy by sending him in with Wasim Jaffer to begin their rain-affected tour match against Victoria.Dravid survived the 158 minutes of play that were possible, reaching 33 not out, and a move to the top of the order in the Test might open the door for Yuvraj Singh to retain his place after he made 169 in the final Test against Pakistan earlier this month. Sachin Tendulkar did not play in that match and will need to slot back in, leaving the selectors to ponder the make-up of their batting order.”We’ve had a very strong middle order over these years, a lot of the same people have played in the middle order a lot,” Dravid said. “We’ve got a lot of good young middle-order batsmen coming in who can’t really be ignored.”Three of his top-order colleagues fell around him and the Junction Oval but Dravid was typically careful, happy just to spend some time at the crease after his disappointing Test series against England and Pakistan. In the three Pakistan Tests he felt he didn’t have “the rub of the green”, and scored 38, 34, 50, 8 not out, 19 and 42.”It’s been a strange series in the sense I got a few starts, maybe played a couple of average shots as well,” Dravid said. “I’ve spent a bit of time in the middle so I feel like I’m playing well, I’m moving my feet and batting well.”But he will have to take that confidence into the unfamiliar role of opener in the first Test, and if Melbourne’s thundery weather continues as expected on Friday and Saturday his preparation might be very limited. Dravid has opened 13 times in Tests, averaging 33.54, and he has not filled the role since February 2006.”I’ve batted all my career in different positions,” he said. “Batting at three you probably come in early a few times as well, but it is a little different. It’s a little bit with the mindset, you’re used to batting in a particular position.”Right from the time I was in school I played in the middle order so you get used to something like that. But as a professional cricketer and as a professional sportsman you’re adaptability is important. The critical thing for me is the changeover – you have just ten minutes [between innings].”India’s impressive results last time they toured Australia – the 2003-04 series was drawn 1-1 – came largely through strong batting and Dravid conceded he would be under pressure to maintain that standard if he opens in the Tests. “As we showed last time if we can get through the early part with the new ball without the loss of too many wickets, we’ve got the kind of batting and people who can make it count later on,” he said.The three-day warm-up match in Melbourne was reduced to only the post-lunch session as heavy rain bookended the day’s play. A torrential downpour came right on tea and the Junction Oval was almost completely under water, but within an hour and a half the rain had stopped and the grass was again visible.Dravid said it would be disappointing if India’s only practice match was washed out ahead of the first Test in what he called the most challenging tour of all. Last time they visited Australia India had good weather for their two tour matches before the series began, and Dravid said that preparation was ideal.”We would definitely have liked more than one warm-up game,” he said. “[But] international cricket is cramped nowadays. We’ll just have to do the best with what we’ve got.”

Mohammad Asif is a doubtful starter for the ODI series against South Africa – commencing next week – due to an elbow injury. Asif will also not bowl any further during the second Test in Lahore.Asif went off the field on the third day of the Test, after having bowled four overs, with what was thought to be a recurrence of an elbow problem that has bothered him since last year’s tour of England.Talat Ali, Pakistan’s manager, said Asif had sought medical advice and been told to not bowl for the next week. “There is a light inflammation in the elbow. He can do his normal training but he has been advised by the doctor to not bowl for the next week.”Though Ali added that Asif should be fit, the ODI series begins in Lahore from October 18, which gives Asif little time to get match-fit.

A number of counties are waiting anxiously for the outcome of an ECB meeting on Wednesday that will determine the fate of player registrations which have been affected by the Indian Cricket League (ICL).Five players – Wavell Hinds, Andrew Hall, Johann van der Wath, Hamish Marshall and Justin Kemp – were rejected by the ECB due to their links with the ICL. Northamptonshire have said they won’t appeal against the Hall and van der Wath judgement, having signed Johann Louw as a replacement, and Derbyshire have moved on from Hinds.However, Gloucestershire are still trying to secure the services of Hamish Marshall who they signed on the basis of his Irish passport. He has continued pre-season preparations despite the uncertainty surrounding his future. “We have been given the right to make representation to the ECB on Hamish’s behalf and we’ve done just that,” chief executive Tom Richardson told the . “Of course it’s a difficult situation for him, but he continues to train very hard and I gather he’s batting extremely well in the nets.”Kent are also trying to overturn the decision against Kemp, who is still taking part in the current ICL tournament. Graham Ford, the Kent coach, told BBC Radio Kent: “Looking at Justin’s case I’m reasonably optimistic the decision will go our way – I’m really hopeful.”Meanwhile, Hampshire are hopeful that Shane Bond will be allowed to take up his deal after Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were both cleared having received No Obligation Certificates from the PCB. “We have got a form of words now from the New Zealand Cricket Board which we think will fulfil the expectations of the ECB for registration,” Rod Bransgrove, the Hampshire chairman, told BBC Radio Solent.Jason Gillespie’s future at Glamorgan is also under the spotlight even though Cricket Australia have said he is now nothing to do with them after retiring from state cricket.Surrey are still waiting to hear whether Saqlain Mushtaq will be cleared after his participation for the Lahore Badshahs. They also don’t know if the deal with Pedro Collins will go through. Although he hasn’t been involved in the ICL, Collins has had to go for an interview with the ECB ahead of his Kolpak registration. Collins turned down a place in the West Indies squad to face Sri Lanka because of his deal at The Oval.