Zimbabwe playing for their future

HARARE—Zimbabwe players, who have no chance of winning the triangular series, will be playing for their futures in their one-day match against India here. India and New Zealand will be aiming to win the competition in Tuesday’s final while Zimbabwe players will be trying to secure new contracts by their performances on Sunday.
Only three players — captain Tatenda Taibu, Heath Streak and Andy Blignaut — have new contracts while the others must wait until the end of September when their performances and other personal factors will be assessed.
Players are known to be disgruntled and a meeting was held before Saturday training. Taibu, who normally gives press interviews after training the day before matches, was not available for comment. The Indian cricket team should stick to the right-left opening combination in the rest of the matches in the on-going Triangular one-day series in Zimbabwe.
Even though Virender Sehwag has not got a big score and Indian captian Sourav Ganguly Is still struggling with his form, the two of them gave India a flying start in yesterday’s Match against the Kiwis at Harare which the former world champions won by six wickets.
It was Sehwag’s blistering knock which gave the Indians the right platform to launch its Attack and with New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond and experienced spinner Daniel Vettori missing from the fireing line, the Kiwi bowler’s found it difficult to contain the Indian batsmen particularly Sehwag and the centurian Mohammad Kaif. Though Bond, who terrorized the Indian batsmen in the earlier league match, and Vettori Were rested,the Kiwis still had a good bowling line up and the Indian batsmen Kaif, Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni batted very Well to chase 278 runs on a not so batsman friendly wicket.
With still one more match to go in the league stages, the Indians should stick to the right- Left opening batting combination. Even in the final the Indians should persist with the Same combination even if Ganguly has been found wanting against short pitched stuff In the past.
It will also be the right thing to utilize the Indian bench strength against the a weak Zimbabwe. The Indian think-tank can give left arm spinner Murali Karthik and batsman Suresh Raina a look in by resting more experienced players as India has already made it To the final.—Agencies

Passports of six Indian cricketers lost

HARARE—Six Indian cricketers currently in Zimbabwe are without passports after their documents were either stolen or lost. Amitabh Chowdhary, the team manager, has said that the necessary procedures were under way and that fresh passports would be issued shortly.
“We lost the passports on Wednesday while I was watching the match between New Zealand and Zimbabwe at the ground on Wednesday,” Chowdhary was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India. “Follow-up action has been taken, forms have been filled and we expect the new passports to be issued by this evening.
Suresh Raina, Rudra Pratap Singh, Murali Kartik, Harbhajan Singh Ashish Nehra and Mohammad Kaif were the six players whose passports went missing. Of these, Raina, RP Singh and Kartik were selected only for the one-day squad, and will return home on Thursday, 8 September 2005.—Agencies