Walsh, Ganguly to play at Dhaka; Lara backs out

By Our Special Correspondent

CALCUTTA, APRIL 1. World's highest Test wicket taker, Courtney Walsh of the West Indies, and Indian captain Sourav Ganguly will turn out for the Asia XI and the Rest of the World XI respectively for the Cricketnext.Com Cup match to be played at Dhaka on April 8 as part of the International Cricket Council's cricket week.

The ICC president, Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya, informed media persons here on Saturday that owing to injury to many players in the past two to three weeks the changes were necessitated. Walsh replaces compatriot Curtly Ambrose, Ganguly comes in place of Saeed Anwar of Pakistan. And in other changes, Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka took Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan's place while in the World XI Andy Flower of Zimbabwe comes in for Brian Lara of the West Indies. Nantie Hayward of South Africa replaces compatriot Allan Donald and England's Phil Tuffnel takes New Zealander Daniel Vettori's place. Lara was originally named to lead the World XI. In his absence Australia's Mark Waugh would captain the side.

India's Srinivas Venkatraghavan and David Orchard of South Africa would be the on-field umpires while Doug Cowie of New Zealand would be the TV umpire for the game. Peter van der Merwe of South Africa would be the match referee.

The playing conditions of one-day international would be followed. The game would be played under lights with the play commencing at 2-15 p.m. Bangladesh time (1-45 p.m. IST). The scheduled close of the game would be at 10 p.m. local time with provision to extend the game by one hour by the umpires if need be. If the match could not be started on the scheduled day, the entire match would be played the next day (April 9, reserve day). If, however, the play on the scheduled day was interrupted, the unfinished match would be played on the reserve day, at least 11 hours after the close of play on the scheduled day. The latest time for the unfinished match to start on the reserve day was 11 a.m.

Each team must bat for a minimum of 25 overs in order to constitute a match. If the match could not be completed in two days, both would be declared as joint winners and the prize money of US $ 30,000 shared. The man of the match, best batsman, best bowler and best fielder would be awarded $ 2,500 each.

Four Bangladesh players had been named to act as substitute fielders and accompany the drinks for the two teams.

The teams: Asia XI: Wasim Akram (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya (vice-captain), Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Aravinda de Silva, Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh, Moin Khan (wk), Anil Kumble, Muthiah Muralidharan, Chaminda Vaas and Abdul Razzaq.

World XI: Mark Waugh (captain), Chris Cairns (vice- captain), Andy Flower, Michael Bevan, Neil Johnson, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Phil Tuffnel, Courtney Walsh, Nantie Hayward and Andrew Caddick.

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