Cairns, Darwin to become first cities outside capitals to host Test cricket
Australian Cricket Board - 2 May 2002
Darwin and Cairns will become the first Australian cities outside the nation's capitals to host Test matches after the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) today announced that Test and one-day international cricket will be played in Northern Australia during the winter of 2003.
ACB Chief Executive Officer, James Sutherland, said with the backing of the Northern Territory Government and the Cairns City Council the ACB had scheduled the Australia versus Bangladesh series for Darwin and Cairns between July and August 2003, subject to the final approval of the stadia by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
"With the international cricketing calendar becoming increasingly congested, the ACB has been searching for suitable facilities in Northern Australia," said Mr Sutherland.
"Marrara Oval in Darwin and Bundaberg Rum Stadium in Cairns were identified and with the works that are now committed to bring these grounds up to international standard the ACB is confident that they will meet ICC specifications."
The Northern Territory Government recently announced a multi-million dollar upgrade of Marrara Oval, while the Cairns City Council and the Cairns Australian Football League (Cairns AFL) are committed to the minor works identified by the ICC in order to bring the venue up to the required standard.
The matches are expected to inject $12 million into the local economies and will promote Cairns and Darwin widely through the telecast of the games both nationally and internationally.
Australian Test captain, Stephen Waugh, also welcomed the opportunity to take the Australian team to Northern Australia.
"To get the chance to play top level cricket in Darwin and Cairns is terrific. The team hasn't played in this part of the country before and it will be a great opportunity to take cricket up to Northern Australia where I know there is a lot of support for the Australian team," Waugh said.
"Clearly with these two venues becoming available, the ACB will be looking to use them in the future," said Mr Sutherland.
"There are emerging opportunities over the coming years for both international cricket and matches involving Australia A to be programmed in these areas, but it is premature to confirm teams and dates beyond next year."
"When the ACB started investigating this issue it was immediately apparent that it would require the support of a number of people and organisations in both Cairns and Darwin to make this happen," said Mr Sutherland.
"Without the hard work of the cricket people in these cities and the efforts of governments and facilities owners to invest in their own assets this simply would not have been possible."
Exact dates are still to be finalised but the ACB confirmed that Darwin's Marrara Oval will host the First Test in early to mid-July before the teams move to Cairns for the Second Test and the first two one-day internationals in late July and early August. Both these games will be day/night fixtures.
The one-day international series will then return to Darwin for the final match, which will be a day game.
Bangladesh in Australia
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Donny
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Bangladesh select their lambs for the slaughter
Wisden CricInfo staff - June 12, 2003
Bangladesh have announced 15 sacrificial lambs for their two-Test tour of Australia later this month, a series that cricket fans and Bangladesh players are anticipating with little short of dread. The one surprise is the recall of the former captain Khaled Mashud, who had been sacked after the World Cup for allegedly setting a bad example on and off the field. Khaled Mahmud will lead the side.
Amid all the recriminations and politicking that have followed that disastrous World Cup campaign, the show has to go on ... unfortunately. Bangladesh have lost 18 of their 19 Tests to date, 13 by an innings. Australia, on the other hand, have won 29 of their 38 matches since the turn of the decade.
This massacre-in-waiting promises to be the most unequal struggle between bat and ball since Australia's bowlers took on the media in a net session at Port Elizabeth during the World Cup. Only an un-Australian display of mercy can prevent a glut of records being smashed in the coming weeks.
After publicly admitting that the appointment of the Pakistani Mohsin Kamal was a mistake, Bangladesh have at least found themselves a coach who is familiar both with Australia and with the art of victory. But even Dav Whatmore, a former Australian Test cricketer and Sri Lanka's World Cup-winning coach, will be hard-pressed to salvage anything from what is arguably the most one-sided international event in history. The only mercy is that the first Test will be conducted in the relatively secluded environs of Darwin.
Squad Khaled Mahmud (capt), Javed Omar, Khaled Mashud, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Rafique, Hannan Sarker, Mohammad Ashraful, Al-Sahariar, Manjural Islam, Alok Kapali, Sanwar Hossain, Tareq Aziz, Tapash Baisya, Anwar Hossain Monir, Mashrafe Mortaza.
Tushar Imran and Habibul Hossain are to join the team later for the one-day matches.
Wisden CricInfo staff - June 12, 2003
Bangladesh have announced 15 sacrificial lambs for their two-Test tour of Australia later this month, a series that cricket fans and Bangladesh players are anticipating with little short of dread. The one surprise is the recall of the former captain Khaled Mashud, who had been sacked after the World Cup for allegedly setting a bad example on and off the field. Khaled Mahmud will lead the side.
Amid all the recriminations and politicking that have followed that disastrous World Cup campaign, the show has to go on ... unfortunately. Bangladesh have lost 18 of their 19 Tests to date, 13 by an innings. Australia, on the other hand, have won 29 of their 38 matches since the turn of the decade.
This massacre-in-waiting promises to be the most unequal struggle between bat and ball since Australia's bowlers took on the media in a net session at Port Elizabeth during the World Cup. Only an un-Australian display of mercy can prevent a glut of records being smashed in the coming weeks.
After publicly admitting that the appointment of the Pakistani Mohsin Kamal was a mistake, Bangladesh have at least found themselves a coach who is familiar both with Australia and with the art of victory. But even Dav Whatmore, a former Australian Test cricketer and Sri Lanka's World Cup-winning coach, will be hard-pressed to salvage anything from what is arguably the most one-sided international event in history. The only mercy is that the first Test will be conducted in the relatively secluded environs of Darwin.
Squad Khaled Mahmud (capt), Javed Omar, Khaled Mashud, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Rafique, Hannan Sarker, Mohammad Ashraful, Al-Sahariar, Manjural Islam, Alok Kapali, Sanwar Hossain, Tareq Aziz, Tapash Baisya, Anwar Hossain Monir, Mashrafe Mortaza.
Tushar Imran and Habibul Hossain are to join the team later for the one-day matches.
Donny.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
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Donny
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No surprises in Australian squad
Wisden CricInfo staff - June 20, 2003
Steve Waugh has been retained as the captain of the Australian Test side for the series against Bangladesh, in a squad that contained no surprises whatsoever. Both the Test and the one-day squads, announced today, incorporated no additions to the ones that returned victorious from Australia's tour of the West Indies.
Damien Martyn's finger injury has not healed sufficiently for him to regain his place in the Test squad, but he was named, subject to fitness, in the one-day side. Trevor Hohns, the chief selector, said: "Martyn hasn't been chosen for the Test match because his injured finger just isn't quite right. The medical staff are concerned with his lack of preparation and at this stage [are] committed to making sure Damien gets himself 100% right."
Hohns brushed aside suggestions that Australia would have played anything less than their strongest sides. "Cricket fans in Cairns and Darwin deserved to see Australia's two world champion teams in action," he said. "We were always going to name our strongest possible sides. There was never any doubt about that. The players want to play in this series and they thoroughly deserve that opportunity."
Test squad 1 Steve Waugh (capt), 2 Ricky Ponting, 3 Andy Bichel, 4 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 5 Jason Gillespie, 6 Matthew Hayden, 7 Brad Hogg, 8 Justin Langer, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Darren Lehmann, 11 Martin Love, 12 Stuart MacGill, 13 Glenn McGrath.
One-day squad 1 Ricky Ponting (capt), 2 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 3 Michael Bevan, 4 Andy Bichel, 5 Jason Gillespie, 6 Ian Harvey, 7 Matthew Hayden, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Darren Lehmann, 11 Damien Martyn (subject to fitness), 12 Glenn McGrath, 13 Andrew Symonds.
Wisden CricInfo staff - June 20, 2003
Steve Waugh has been retained as the captain of the Australian Test side for the series against Bangladesh, in a squad that contained no surprises whatsoever. Both the Test and the one-day squads, announced today, incorporated no additions to the ones that returned victorious from Australia's tour of the West Indies.
Damien Martyn's finger injury has not healed sufficiently for him to regain his place in the Test squad, but he was named, subject to fitness, in the one-day side. Trevor Hohns, the chief selector, said: "Martyn hasn't been chosen for the Test match because his injured finger just isn't quite right. The medical staff are concerned with his lack of preparation and at this stage [are] committed to making sure Damien gets himself 100% right."
Hohns brushed aside suggestions that Australia would have played anything less than their strongest sides. "Cricket fans in Cairns and Darwin deserved to see Australia's two world champion teams in action," he said. "We were always going to name our strongest possible sides. There was never any doubt about that. The players want to play in this series and they thoroughly deserve that opportunity."
Test squad 1 Steve Waugh (capt), 2 Ricky Ponting, 3 Andy Bichel, 4 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 5 Jason Gillespie, 6 Matthew Hayden, 7 Brad Hogg, 8 Justin Langer, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Darren Lehmann, 11 Martin Love, 12 Stuart MacGill, 13 Glenn McGrath.
One-day squad 1 Ricky Ponting (capt), 2 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 3 Michael Bevan, 4 Andy Bichel, 5 Jason Gillespie, 6 Ian Harvey, 7 Matthew Hayden, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Darren Lehmann, 11 Damien Martyn (subject to fitness), 12 Glenn McGrath, 13 Andrew Symonds.
Donny.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
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Donny
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Pitches drop in on Darwin
Wisden CricInfo staff - June 19, 2003
Preparations for Bangladesh's maiden Test tour of Australia are fully underway. Two drop-in pitches, prepared at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and flown 2000 miles north to Darwin, have been installed at the Marrara Oval ahead of Darwin's inaugural Test on July 18, which will be followed by a one-day international on August 6.
Darwin's weather is too dry for the development of international-standard wickets, and so the drop-in technique, now fairly common in Australia and New Zealand, was the obvious solution. The pitches, which weigh 18 tonnes each, were split in half and lowered into place using a crane, before being rachetted back together in a process that took several hours.
The operation was overseen by Tony Ware, the curator at the MCG, who predicted that the soil-and-steel structure would make a good wicket for Darwin's tropical conditions. "It is really just a quite a heavy, sticky clay that obviously goes hard when it's dry," said Ware. "The pitch itself won't play overly quick. It would probably be as quick as a lot of Test venues around the world, but probably not as quick as our wickets are in Melbourne, for instance."
Ware added that the decision to split the pitch was made after problems with the drop-in wickets at the Colonial (now Telstra) Stadium in Melbourne during the one-day series against Pakistan last year. "In Colonial last year, we put a Super Challenge wicket in and it wasn't able to be joined in the middle so it opened up a little bit in the join," said Ware. "What we've done is developed a bolt system and a ratchetting system so that we can actually pull the two halves of the frame together very tightly. That just gives us an extra level of guarantee that the join across is not going to cause any issues during the matches."
Ware added that other preparations in Darwin were going well, and a quick outfield was anticipated. "Obviously, there is a lot of work going on around the venue with new scoreboards and new boxes being built,and other facilities. It's all coming together really well for the match in July."
The Australian Cricket Board, meanwhile, has announced a strong Academy team for the three-day match against Bangladesh which begins on July 3 at Allan Border Field in Brisbane. Three Western Australian players, Scott Meuleman, Luke Ronchi and Peter Worthington, and the South Australian Mark Cleary have all made their domestic four-day debuts in the Pura Cup, while 18-year-old South Australian batsman Callum Ferguson made his one-day ING Cup debut against New South Wales in February this year.
Wisden CricInfo staff - June 19, 2003
Preparations for Bangladesh's maiden Test tour of Australia are fully underway. Two drop-in pitches, prepared at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and flown 2000 miles north to Darwin, have been installed at the Marrara Oval ahead of Darwin's inaugural Test on July 18, which will be followed by a one-day international on August 6.
Darwin's weather is too dry for the development of international-standard wickets, and so the drop-in technique, now fairly common in Australia and New Zealand, was the obvious solution. The pitches, which weigh 18 tonnes each, were split in half and lowered into place using a crane, before being rachetted back together in a process that took several hours.
The operation was overseen by Tony Ware, the curator at the MCG, who predicted that the soil-and-steel structure would make a good wicket for Darwin's tropical conditions. "It is really just a quite a heavy, sticky clay that obviously goes hard when it's dry," said Ware. "The pitch itself won't play overly quick. It would probably be as quick as a lot of Test venues around the world, but probably not as quick as our wickets are in Melbourne, for instance."
Ware added that the decision to split the pitch was made after problems with the drop-in wickets at the Colonial (now Telstra) Stadium in Melbourne during the one-day series against Pakistan last year. "In Colonial last year, we put a Super Challenge wicket in and it wasn't able to be joined in the middle so it opened up a little bit in the join," said Ware. "What we've done is developed a bolt system and a ratchetting system so that we can actually pull the two halves of the frame together very tightly. That just gives us an extra level of guarantee that the join across is not going to cause any issues during the matches."
Ware added that other preparations in Darwin were going well, and a quick outfield was anticipated. "Obviously, there is a lot of work going on around the venue with new scoreboards and new boxes being built,and other facilities. It's all coming together really well for the match in July."
The Australian Cricket Board, meanwhile, has announced a strong Academy team for the three-day match against Bangladesh which begins on July 3 at Allan Border Field in Brisbane. Three Western Australian players, Scott Meuleman, Luke Ronchi and Peter Worthington, and the South Australian Mark Cleary have all made their domestic four-day debuts in the Pura Cup, while 18-year-old South Australian batsman Callum Ferguson made his one-day ING Cup debut against New South Wales in February this year.
Donny.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
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Donny
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Bangladesh realistic about the task in hand
Wisden Cricinfo staff - June 23, 2003
Bangladesh yesterday departed for their short tour of Australia (two Tests, three ODIs), but for once the aims were realistic and there was no sign of the pre-tour hype which is customary on such occasions. They know that only a miracle will stop them being heavily defeated by Australia, but the hope is that they will perform well enough to help them shed their reputation as international cricket's no-hopers.
"We are going to have a tough tour in Australia but mentally, we are strong and ready to face the opponents with courage," Khaled Mahmud, Bangladesh's captain, told reporters in Dhaka. "Everybody is now in a positive mood and we are not thinking anything negative. Though it will not be possible to bring any radical change in the team within the next few months, I think there will be some positive results after a certain time."
Mahmud welcomed the itinerary, which gives Bangladesh almost a month to acclimatise before the opening Test. "It will be good for us," he said. "We will be able to train hard to adjust to the local conditions."
He added that the advice given to the team before the Tests in South Africa, that they should try to play for five days, was wrong. ""It added pressure on the players," he explained. "I realise that it was not right and I don't want to repeat it. My only advice is to try to do better and play our natural game."
Only a wild optimist expects Bangladesh to do anything other than be crushed by a weary Australian side keen to get things over and done with. That accepted, the only way is up for Bangladesh and if they can show more fight than they have in recent performances then they will gain from the experience.
Wisden Cricinfo staff - June 23, 2003
Bangladesh yesterday departed for their short tour of Australia (two Tests, three ODIs), but for once the aims were realistic and there was no sign of the pre-tour hype which is customary on such occasions. They know that only a miracle will stop them being heavily defeated by Australia, but the hope is that they will perform well enough to help them shed their reputation as international cricket's no-hopers.
"We are going to have a tough tour in Australia but mentally, we are strong and ready to face the opponents with courage," Khaled Mahmud, Bangladesh's captain, told reporters in Dhaka. "Everybody is now in a positive mood and we are not thinking anything negative. Though it will not be possible to bring any radical change in the team within the next few months, I think there will be some positive results after a certain time."
Mahmud welcomed the itinerary, which gives Bangladesh almost a month to acclimatise before the opening Test. "It will be good for us," he said. "We will be able to train hard to adjust to the local conditions."
He added that the advice given to the team before the Tests in South Africa, that they should try to play for five days, was wrong. ""It added pressure on the players," he explained. "I realise that it was not right and I don't want to repeat it. My only advice is to try to do better and play our natural game."
Only a wild optimist expects Bangladesh to do anything other than be crushed by a weary Australian side keen to get things over and done with. That accepted, the only way is up for Bangladesh and if they can show more fight than they have in recent performances then they will gain from the experience.
Donny.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
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Donny
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Bangladesh opened their Australian tour with a good performance against a Queensland Academy of Sport Invitation XI at the Allan Border Field, today.
They dismissed the QAS for 201. From 3/10, they recovered with a 100 run stand from Carseldine (92) and Hopes (53) but no other batsmen really made an impression.
Tapash Baisya took 3/33 and Khaled Mahmud, 2/34.
At stumps, the Bangers were on 3/86 from 29 overs.
They dismissed the QAS for 201. From 3/10, they recovered with a 100 run stand from Carseldine (92) and Hopes (53) but no other batsmen really made an impression.
Tapash Baisya took 3/33 and Khaled Mahmud, 2/34.
At stumps, the Bangers were on 3/86 from 29 overs.
Donny.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
It's a game. Enjoy it.
