JOHANNESBURG, 5 March 2003 — Nasser Hussain resigned as England’s one-day captain in Port Elizabeth yesterday following the team’s first round exit from the World Cup. Hussain, who said he intended to take a two-month break from all cricket and wanted to carry on as Test captain, told reporters: “I have twisted and turned. I firmly believe that England are a better side with me as captain. But I also believe it’s time for someone else to come in and be looked at as a future England captain.” “I’m not going to do a Shane Warne and read out something on a piece of paper. I’ve always spoken from the heart. I believe the time has come to step down as England one-day captain. I reiterate that’s just for one-day cricket. I am firmly 100 percent dedicated to the Test match side of the game and I would like to carry on as England Test match captain. The bottom line is that I’m 35 this month and there must be people out there who can average more than 30 and get a better strike rate than 67,” said Hussain referring to his modest One-Day International record.
S. Africa Didn’t Blunder Over Run Target: Coach
South Africa coach Eric Simons denied yesterday that a runs miscalculation led to his team’s World Cup exit. South Africa were eliminated on Monday after tying their final rain-affected Group B match against Sri Lanka. Set 269 to win, they reached 229 for six from 45 of their 50 overs before the day-nighter in Durban was rained off. Captain Shaun Pollock told a news conference after the game that batsman Mark Boucher had been told 229 runs were needed for victory, when in fact 230 were required at that stage of the game. But Simons told Reuters by phone that the situation was more complex, with the rolling run target, as calculated by the Duckworth-Lewis scoring system, changing ball by ball and no one knowing for sure when, or indeed if, the match would be called off. “It was a bizarre situation but it would be wrong to say there was a miscalculation,” Simons said. “If that last ball had not been bowled, we would have won and if another delivery had been allowed and we had scored two runs from it we would have been ahead again.” Some reports have suggested that South Africa misread the Duckworth-Lewis grids, which show runs required to tie, not win, for each over of a run chase. Simons said South Africa would approach the ICC with proposals to deal better with such situations in the future.
Gillespie Injury Concerns Grow
Concerns are growing over Jason Gillespie’s World Cup participation after the Australia fast bowler was sent for a scan on his sore right Achilles yesterday. The injury, which has kept Gillespie out of the world champions’ last two matches against Namibia and England, has failed to respond to treatment. “It hasn’t improved since the problem initially occurred and that is not ideal,” team physiotherapist Errol Alcott said. “It is hard to speculate on how he is until we get the results within the next 48 hours. “We would expect to know more about the immediate future when the results of the scan come through,” he added.
