The former Australian batting great Greg Chappell has warned that the dropping of Darren Lehmann may signal the start of a purge of players ahead of the next World Cup, in the West Indies in 2007.Lehmann’s international career seems to be at an end after he was left out of Australia’s one-day squad for next month’s tour of New Zealand next month. At 35, he is only two years older than Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Michael Kasprowicz, while Test stalwarts Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne are also well into their thirties.”I think it just puts everyone on notice,” Chappell, a former Test captain and selector himself, told the Sydney Daily Telegraph. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past, it’s all about your performance now and looking to the future. A lot of guys in that squad will be on the wrong side of their thirties by the time the next World Cup rolls around, so there may well be other changes as well. They [selectors] can’t afford to make half-a-dozen changes in one go, so they’ve obviously looked at shoring up some gaps right now, and have got on with it.”The Australian selectors have proved ruthless in recent years, axeing the Waugh twins from the one-day team before the 2003 World Cup, and jettisoning Andy Bichel and Michael Bevan – until recently seen as the world’s best one-day player – before the current season. “History shows that they’ve tapped Allan Border, David Boon, Ian Healy, Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh on the shoulder and have basically told them ‘Right-ho guys, it’s time to move on and let the next generation through’, and I think this is pretty similar,” said Chappell. “You’ve got to freshen up every so often.”

Jeremy Snape, the former England off-spinner, has signed a new three-year deal with Leicestershire. Snape, 31, who played in ten ODI’s from 2001 to 2002, joined Leicestershire in 2003 after playing for Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire.”He is a very valuable and experienced member of our squad,” James Whitaker, their former captain and now director of cricket, told the official club website. Snape will be a busy man this summer; he is continuing his studies for a Masters degree in sports psychology at Loughborough University, and hopes to open up a practice when he retires from cricket.Snape played an important role in Leicestershire’s Twenty20 success last summer, with his flighted off-spin and useful lower-order batting, hitting the winning runs in the final against Surrey at Edgbaston.

Cricket Scotland have announced that former England bowling coach Bob Cottam will be joining their coaching staff in the lead-up to the all important ICC Trophy competition to be held in Ireland in July 2005.Cottam has been in Edinburgh this week working with the Scotland’s players and it has been confirmed that he will spend a further 30 days with the squad both before and during the tournament which will decide qualification for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.In a 13-year first-class career Cottam took over 1000 wickets for Hampshire and Northants and played four Tests taking 14 wickets at an average of 23.35. After retiring he coached Warwickshire and Somerset before becoming England’s bowling coach from 1998 to 2001.Scotland coach Andy Moles said he was delighted at the prospect of teaming up with a former mentor from his days at Warwickshire. "I have personal experience of working with Bob from my playing days, and having spoken to some bowlers with whom he has worked it is clear he will be a valuable asset to the Scotland coaching staff,” he explained. “He has worked with many world class cricketers, and his appointment is further proof that Cricket Scotland is doing everything it can to ensure success in the forthcoming World Cup qualifying tournament".For his part, Cottam was “delighted to be renewing acquaintance with Andy and I have already been extremely impressed with the attitude of the players here in the short time I have spent with them. I am looking forward to helping the team meet their objectives over the coming season".

1st day

Scorecard
Shane Warne shone with the bat, striking his maiden first-class century from just 72 balls, after Hampshire’s top order had again slumped. Their collapse to 130 for 7 included another failure for Kevin Pietersen, caught at second slip by Martin van Jaarsveld. Simon Katich (56) offered some resistance but it wasn’t until Warne and Tim Burrows, the debutant wicketkeeper, joined forces that Hampshire’s fortunes took an upturn. Burrows was a perfect foil for the flamboyant Warne and they added 131. Warne’s century is the early leader for the fastest hundred of the season and means he is no longer left with a highest first-class score of 99 against New Zealand at Perth. “Now I’ve got the first one out of the way, I am hoping there will be a few more around the corner,” Warne told . “It was an ambition, I’ve got 5000 first-class runs but wondered if this would happen. I was getting very nervous out there.” The Hampshire innings raced along at almost four-and-a-half runs an over and Kent were not much slower. David Fulton led the reply but Sean Ervine bowled Robert Key for 20 to continue a poor day for England batsmen. A wicket apiece for Chris Tremlett and Richard Logan leaves the match evenly balanced.
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Surrey put their horror showing against Nottinghamshire behind them and piled up an imposing total on a run-filled day at The Oval. Alistair Brown capitalised on the solid foundation laid by Scott Newman’s 117 to strike a dashing century of his own at better than a run-a-ball. Newman’s innings was the first time this summer he had managed to convert a solid start into a significant score and showed many of the skills that earned him Academy recognition two winters ago. Rikki Clarke, short of runs so far this summer, was on course for a century until he was caught behind. Glamorgan were hampered by a depleted attack with Darren Thomas able to bowl only three balls before being forced off with a groin injury. Brown and James Benning took advantage and added 114 for the sixth wicket. Benning made his second fifty in two matches and because of Surrey’s pace of scoring the loss of two late wickets did not affect the balance of power.
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Middlesex were indebted to their middle-order as they posted a competitive total at Lord’s. Plenty of batsmen got a start, including Andrew Strauss, who reached 27 before he fell to a miscued pull off Steve Kirby. Owais Shah (63) and Ed Joyce (75) cracked attractive half-centuries – Joyce’s innings continued his prolific start to the season and he has now passed 500 runs in only six innings. But each time a significant stand threatened to develop Gloucestershire struck back. However, Middlesex bat a long way down and this was evident as Paul Weekes and Ben Scott added 119 for the seventh wicket. Jon Lewis returned to mop up the tail and although Middlesex will be disappointed that none of their batsmen converted into three figures they have a useful total to bowl at.2nd day

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Warwickshire’s unbeaten County Championship record – dating back to the start of the 2004 season – is under serious threat after Sussex took control of their meeting at Hove. Some stubborn lower-order resistance propelled Sussex passed 400, although progress was slow with James Kirtley facing 164 balls for 30. A more aggressive contribution came from Johann van der Wath, who struck 34 from 52 balls. The tail was able to take advantage of a Warwickshire attack missing Ashley Giles, who sat out play with a muscle injury in his right leg. It is not thought to be serious but he is awaiting the results of a scan. However, he may bat with a runner and his contributions will be needed after Warwickshire struggled to 141 for 5. Once Sussex had broken the opening stand of 75 they chipped away steadily. Mushtaq Ahmed twirled through 17 overs, claiming Nick Knight and Alex Loudon.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

How does a team like Australia go from 136 for no loss to 235 all out in the space of fewer than 40 overs? Anil Kumble’s scything spell – 17.3-4-48-7 – had much to do with it, as did a first-day Chennai pitch with bounce in it, and the tendency of Australia’s batsmen to defend forward with hard hands. India pulled off a stunning turnaround after Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer got off to a fine start, and only the fall of Yuvraj Singh before trhe close spoiled a perfect day for the home side.The pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore came in for a lot of criticism before the start of the first Test: John Buchannan, Australia’s coach, went as far as calling it “terrible”. But as Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh showed as late as the fifth day, it was fine for batting: Dean Jones called it a “lamb in wolf’s clothing”. The Chennai pitch was exactly the opposite.The ball came onto the bat nicely in the first session, and in the absence of movement in the air and off the pitch, the old firm of Hayden and Langer took full toll. Irfan Pathan relied heavily on swing, and did his best to keep a tight line and length, but was not able to break through. Zaheer Khan also rapped the pad more than once, but was never close enough to convince the umpires.When Hayden lifted Harbhajan Singh over the long-on fence to bring up his fifty and the team hundred, in less than 23 overs, it seemed to be one of days for India. The scoreboard galloped along and Langer, scratchy at first, found his feet and reached a half-century of his own. Job well done, they walked off for lunch with 111 for 0.In the period after lunch, the balance between bat and ball began to shift. There were the first hints of reverse-swing, and Harbhajan began to get the ball to bounce sharply when he gave it a rip and tossed it up. In the first three balls of the 34th over, he sent the openers packing. Hayden (58) holed out to long-off, after Ganguly choked the run-flow, and Langer (71) edged to slip. All of a sudden, 136 for 0 was 136 for 2, and the Indians were pumped up.Harbhajan’s performance gave the team the lift it so desperately needed, and then Kumble got stuck in. Spearing in those fizzing legbreaks, googlies and top-spinners, Kumble made the batsmen play, and prised out Damien Martyn (26), who lunged forward and presented short leg with a catch (189 for 3). Simon Katich and Martyn had put on 63 for the third wicket.From then on, it was Kumble all the way as Australia’s batsmen failed to come to terms with the extra bounce in this pitch. Katich plugged away, nudging and deflecting the ball around for safe runs. At the other end, though, Kumble did not give anyone a chance to settle down. None of the last seven batsmen managed more than 5, and Kumble had found the success of old.

Darren Lehmann, a canny if unorthodox player of spin, chopped hard at a short one before he’d scored, and feathered a nick to Parthiv Patel, who had had a horrid day behind the stumps till that point, fluffing simple collections (191 for 4). Michael Clarke, fresh from a cracking 151 in the first Test, was trapped in front by a pacy Kumble slider that would have knocked the leg stump over (204 for 5).Adam Gilchrist (3) then became the first of three Australians to walk without waiting for the umpire’s decision, after he popped a catch to short leg (210 for 6). Shane Warne lobbed a simple return catch (216 for 7) and Kumble, with five wickets, had gone past Curtly Ambrose’s tally of 406 Test wickets. But he was not quite done for the day.Jason Gillespie was caught by Mohammad Kaif at short leg via bat and pad and was quick to shuffle off the pitch and back to the dressing-room. Then came a hairy moment for David Shepherd, the umpire standing at the Wallajah Road end, the one from which all wickets fell in the innings. Michael Kasprowicz edged Kumble to silly mid-off, but Shepherd turned the appeal down, only to see the batsman walking off (228 for 9). Glenn McGrath, rarely a batsman to hold up the opposition, ran himself out, leaving Australia all out for 235 and Katich stranded on 36 not out.Kumble’s incisive spell, in which he picked up 7 for 25 from 10 overs, ensured that India were right on top. And the luck was still with them when they started batting: Yuvraj, opening the batting for the first time in Tests, edged the sixth ball he faced, off McGrath, to Clarke at second slip, and watched in surprise as the catch was floored. But he did not capitalise on the let-off, and inside-edged Warne through to Gilchrist when he attempted a booming drive. Warne, jumping for joy, had caught up with Muttiah Muralitharan as the world’s highest Test wicket-taker, with 532 scalps.Nevertheless Virender Sehwag, who racked up 2000 runs in Tests, and the nightwatchman Pathan took India through to the close at 28 for 1, 207 runs behind Australia.

Is Shane in the best phase of his career?
Shane’s best years were between 1993 and 1997, where he took those enormous amounts of Test wickets. However, after his recent 12 months off, the best he bowled in a long time was in Sri Lanka, where he spun the ball and looked very good. Today, he is still bowling better than anyone else has bowled – not spinning the ball as much as he did, as often as he did; but variation, change of pace and a lot of subtleties have come with experience.So has he gone down from the peaks he reached in that purple period you mentioned?
The answer is simple: he underwent a shoulder reconstruction. Prior to that, he spent a lot of time having injections in his shoulder. So, he went through a long stage of not being fully fit and, in a sense, that is the most important part of Shane’s action. Apart from his fingers and wrist, it is his shoulder which he was unable to fully utilize. Then he had the operation, and that took a long time to recover from; in fact, the surgeon who carried out the operation said that it’s common with javelin throwers – and the majority don’t return. So Shane returned, struggled for a while and then just pressed on with his game. And, prior to that, the tendon in his finger had to be operated on – all this in the latter part of the nineties. After that, when he started playing again he dropped a simple catch and broke his spinning finger – which is not a pretty shape now. So he has had to re-adjust the feel of his fingers. He has had several of those injuries, along with the arthroscopy on his knee, all of which have taken some sort of a toll. He hasn’t deteriorated in the true sense of the master of the craft, but injuries have caused adjustments to the way he plays, the way he bowls.Do you fear any further injuries could disrupt again?
I don’t think so. He is 35, very fit and his shoulder is very strong. The only thing that could go wrong now would be accidental, which is like the last injury – the broken finger – a freakish one. That was the second time he had injured his fingers so he had to re-adjust his thinking, and his feel in his fingers on two occasions. That’s a hell of a climb when you rely on the fingers and the wrist to impart the spin on the ball.What are the things you guys worked during the one-year ban?
We worked on alignment, on spinning the ball, on confidence, on not being defensive, but positive and attacking. Generally, we worked on rebuilding his confidence because, after a gap of a year, it doesn’t matter who you are, you still wonder whether you are going to do it like you did before.Do you think those things are working now?
Well, he got those 27 wickets in Sri Lanka, so you will have to say that it worked.

During his pomp he had this ability to drift the ball phenomenally. How come that has stopped?
It depends on the height of his arm. There was a period there, just before his suspension, when his arm was quite low, probably bordering as low as Stuart MacGill’s. And when the arm is down that low he doesn’t get the same sort of action on the ball that allows that curve. When he gets the shoulder in the customary position – which is up and over, and not around – that’s when we see the curve. In Sri Lanka it was curving where he had that lovely action, similar to the one he had back in 1995 that was beautiful to watch.So what are his stock balls at the moment?
It’s still the legbreak – and that will always remain his stock ball. Then there are the natural changes of pace. He has now got the very deceptive slider which is getting him a lot of lbws. That is turning out to be the master ball for him. Then, he just occasionally throws in the topspinner and the googly, because they are still part of his repertoire. And the flipper – he doesn’t nearly as often because it has a lot to do with the broken finger and the hand; it is very much a confidence ball and if you got something sort of that doesn’t feel right then you probably wouldn’t bowl it. But I am still optimistic that he will work out a way of bowling it with this disjointed fourth finger on his hand.Now about India tour: in his six Tests there, Shane has 20 wickets at 52.25. You must have seen the previous two tours, so what he was trying then and what went wrong?
You could say the same about Kumble when he didn’t perform well when he came over here. Then there is the fact that Muralitharan has also struggled in India. Probably you will have to say that, and I don’t use this an excuse but as a statement of fact, on neither occasion that he has toured India has he been at full fitness in terms of the shoulder and the confidence not being there. The first time he was having a lot of injections to get through, and the second time he had the finger operation and was finding his way back. Perhaps this is the time, maybe, to assess him on the best he has to offer because he is fit; it’s only the damaged spinning finger which may temper his repertoire a little bit. He is very optimistic and I am certainly hopeful we can see Warne at his best.What should be his approach this time then?
Exactly like he bowled in Sri Lanka – if he can approach it that way, be attacking, be positive, don’t be defensive: that is the answer. The difficulty, of course, for Shane, is that he won’t have anyone at the other end. However, if you know Warne at all you will know he will carry that load mentally and feel responsible, and again it might temper his aggression. It’s an awkward scenario: he will bowl the overs for his captain, and may bowl more overs than he should but that’s what he will do, that’s the way he is.

What is the best way to bowl to the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, VVS and Ganguly?
You have to spin the ball. What else can you do? I am sure that will test Laxman, Tendulkar and co. as against when he was there before where he mainly was just pushing the ball through and they were able to read the length and play from there. He has learnt from that; he is 35 and a terrific student of the game and he recognizes that to be successful in India he can’t do what he did on his previous trips.He can only supply what’s in his armoury, which would mean working very hard for his wickets provided someone at the other end can bowl really good spells to keep it tight.That means the lack of a proper spin-partner would have done him harm?
It has made his life difficult for sure. Its not the first time that he has had that scenario. When you think about those 530-odd wickets, and the percentage of wickets he has got in India, for him it’s a challenge. If he can get McGrath, Gillespie and Kasprowicz to keep it tight then I think it’s unlikely that the other two spinners will get much of a look in, unless for some reason the pitches are really substandard. In this case they will be obliged to play a couple of spinners, otherwise Australia will go with only one.Do you think the Aussies should go in with two spinners?
I am not going to say they should because you have one spinner (Nathan Hauritz) who has taken 16 wickets last year at more than 60, and the other one (Cameron White) is just feeling his way. If you went with two spinners then I would say that you would have to go with Cameron White, but again he is very young and inexperienced for those conditions.You said it would do Hauritz more harm if he was picked up?
Nathan Hauritz is a young man, who has, unfortunately, developed his craft in the limited-over game. So what he has to be able to do if he plays a Test match is bowl 20 or 30 overs. And I sense that eventhough they felt that he was the best finger spinner in the country his record is one that makes it difficult. He is only a baby and I don’t think throwing him to the wolves on this tour of India will give him much of a chance in the future. They’ve got to think carefully. But if it’s a poor pitch that will bring Hauritz into the game because he has just got to bowl line and length. And with only one game before the first Test, you would never see these guys (Hauritz only played the game as Warne opted out and White couldn’t figure in the XI). They could be like (Stuart) MacGill, who went there and didn’t bowl a ball.How about MacGill – another miss?
He is the second-best spin bowler in Australia and on that score he should’ve been picked. However, if Warne hasn’t been successful to this point in India then the chance of MacGill striking aren’t good. Also, if you have the two leggies together and it’s not working then it is going to be expensive. So, they are thinking that a finger spinner can tie an end up. In the past you had Colin Miller and Gavin Robertson doing that job and they had some years and some kilometres under their belt. So it’s a difficult scenario. I guess of the 15, twelve will play and the three youngsters are there for experience.

Turning to India, what are the things that have always impressed you about Anil Kumble?
The fact that he has got a giant heart, he never ever wants to give the ball up. I have that strong vision in my mind of him bowling in the West Indies with a broken jaw and bandages all round his face. I saw that on the television; there’s been a lot of other bowlers that haven’t taken the field and here’s Anil Kumble with a broken jaw trying to help his team win a Test match. Then when he was here last summer against a pretty formidable Australian side and they took to him, but he stuck to his game. He didn’t bowl like he did on the previous tour where he put men all around the boundary and tried to be defensive and get them out. And in the end even if got six for 160-odd in Sydney, he was still doing his job. That again stuck in my mind.The other thing was, with the way he bowled in India, it was not possible for that style of bowling to work in Australia. And for him to alter the sequence of his deliveries from his armoury showed that he is clever, and a good learner.Last year in Adelaide you worked with him for a session: what did you dwell on?
I had a terrific hour-and-a-half with him. It was mostly about what I just mentioned above about changing the sequence, bowling more wrong `uns and topspinners, getting his wrong `un more as it spins, use the faster one as a surprise ball and not as a stock ball. We discussed what his stock balls were in India: the quicker slider, throwing the occasional topspinner, wrong `un and also the legspinner that is sort of developing. Out here he reversed that.He was looking to bowl with a lower arm because Shane bowled with a lower arm, and I said to him at that time, “You and Shane are different bowlers. You both have different strengths. Let’s look at your strengths – you have got 300-plus Test wickets bowling a certain way. Just let’s use the sequence of your deliveries differently.” We also talked about alignment, as he gets his feet out of the line a bit – which he was aware of.Has he become more predictable?
He has developed a legbreak which, unless people haven’t been watching it closely, you can see that it actually turns. And the minute it turns and runs away to slip you can’t continue to push up the line and play him like an inswing bowler. I would imagine he might throw in his legbreaks pretty early, which would bring the other balls into the game. Getting used to his slider is only any good if he is not spinning it away from the bat with other delieveries. So, if he bowls the ball that spins away then the slider becomes pretty effective, because they start to play away to cover the spin and may get trapped lbw or bowled through the gate.Any result for the series?
I will tell you what’s important for Australia: we are playing India, and England are touring South Africa. Coming up next year, Australia play England in England. What will be perfect is for both sides to be undefeated when they get to that series, that would make it an absolute blockbuster. Having said that, England have got a better chance of beating South Africa than Australia have of beating India because records don’t lie, as it’s been a battle royal. McGrath being sort of at the end of his career could swing the series. So if McGrath can find one more really good series in him then that would give Warne the support at the other end and Australia can win the series. If both of them aren’t able to do that job then it would be a brave man that would suggest Australia could win it. I would like to predict 2-2.

The England & Wales Cricket Board are hopeful that the forthcoming NatWest Challenge matches at Lord’s and The Oval will not be affected by Thursday’s terrorist attacks on London.”We are certainly not complacent about the threat from terrorism,” said an ECB spokesman during England’s nine-wicket win at Headingley. “We are expecting the NatWest Challenge to proceed as planned, but we shall be guided by police advice.”The four bomb blasts, which crippled London’s tube network during the morning rush-hour on Thursday, are sure to have spill-over effects into the weekend. The entire system was closed for the remainder of the day, and with full houses expected to descend on Lord’s on Sunday and The Oval on Tuesday, access to the grounds may prove tricky.Michael Vaughan admitted after the Headingley match that it had been hard to focus on the game at hand, given the distractions in the capital. “It’s difficult,” he said. “It certainly puts cricket and sport into perspective.”Yesterday we were celebrating London getting the Olympics and then you put the telly on this morning and you see those kinds of things – it just puts sport and life into perspective. If our win today can go any way towards making a few people happy, that’s fantastic.”

Michael Clarke was stunned by Darren Lehmann’s offer to stand down when Ricky Ponting returns, but the third Test, starting at Nagpur tomorrow, will be the first of a series of unofficial bat-offs between the two.Ponting’s comeback from a broken thumb, either in the fourth Test against India at Mumbai next week or the first Test against New Zealand at the Gabba from November 18, means one of the current batsmen will be squeezed out. Lehmann, at 34, is the most vulnerable unless the selectors make the unlikely move of dumping Clarke, 23, despite an amazing start to his Test career.Lehmann said after the first Test that he may stand down when Ponting returns to keep Clarke in the side but Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, rejected the selfess suggestion. Clarke himself was unhappy at the situation: “It was an unbelievable comment from such a great guy and someone who has been such a great player for Australian cricket. I want to keep playing but that call comes down to the selectors. I hope ‘Boofer’ [Lehmann] does not step down. I call him the veteran. He is the veteran of the team and like the father. Everybody goes to him for support.”In this series Clarke is well ahead of Lehmann, making 212 runs at 70.67 to Lehmann’s 62 at 15.50. As unlikely as his sacking seems, Clarke said he would be fine if the selectors omitted him when Ponting comes back. “I was selected because Ricky got injured,” he said. “If I got dropped I would not have an issue with it at all.”Clarke unwound from his heady first fortnight of Test cricket by spending four days at a luxury resort in Singapore with Damien Martyn during the team’s mini-break. “After the first day of the Chennai Test he [Martyn] was on 25 or 26 and I said if you make a hundred I’ll go with you,” Clarke said. “He initially wanted to go on his own. It turns out I was booking on the flight that night. We just had a good time and relaxed. We sat by the pool.”Clarke’s dream-like efforts with the bat at Bangalore and Chennai were marred slightly by two dropped catches at second slip. “There’s nothing worse in cricket than dropping a catch,” he said. “It’s definitely disappointing but we’re standing so close to the bat over here that the ball is coming pretty quickly.”

Glenn McGrath has become Test cricket’s most prolific No. 11 batsman, after he scored 5 not out to save the third Ashes Test at Old Trafford. McGrath’s knock took his aggregate to 555 runs, the highest by any last man, overhauling Courtney Walsh’s 553.McGrath, who needs just seven more wickets to break Walsh’s record of 519, and become the most successful fast bowler in Test history, said he had mixed feelings about his newly acquired batting record. “I think I’ve been pushing my whole career to get out of the No. 11 spot and to finally have the most runs at 11 in the history of the game,” he was quoted as saying by AAP. “I guess it’s good in one respect and bad probably [that I’m] still batting at No.11.”McGrath said that he was now looking for a batting promotion “I have been into Ricky [Ponting] again today to say I need to be moved up the order,” he said. “He is still resisting the temptation so obviously I will be back to 11 again in the next Test.”McGrath has worked hard on his batting over the past two years, and now has a Test half-century to show for it. He is also yet to be dismissed in the Ashes. “When I came off, I actually asked the boys what it’s like to get out in this series,” McGrath said. “I’ve worked pretty hard and feel reasonably confident out in the middle, which is something quite new to me.”The last pair of McGrath and Brett Lee endured one of the most nerve-wracking final stages of any Test as they played out the last four overs to deny England victory.

A line has finally been drawn under the long-standing dispute between Zimbabwe’s rebel players and their cricket board, after it was announced the players would be withdrawing from the alternative dispute-resolution process that had been set up in July to assist them with their case.”I have advised all parties that the tribunal has been dissolved,” said John Traicos, the former Zimbabwean spinner and chairman of the tribunal. He was acting on the instructions of the players’ lawyer, Chris Venturas, who confirmed that his clients no longer wished to go ahead with the process.It is clear that the rebels had little faith that the tribunal gave them any realistic chance of success and that they had grown weary after almost eight months of battling. “They have no trust in former ZCU officials to pay compensation or to change their selection policies,” a source told The Times. “They feel disenchanted with their lawyer in Zimbabwe, their families have had enough of the uncertainty and they feel that the arbitration process would be lengthy and expensive.”While the announcement brings the dispute to an end, it is unlikely that the senior players involved, led by Heath Streak, will return to the side to play against England. “We are due to meet together in a day or two and will issue a joint statement on our future plans,” Trevor Gripper, one of the three remaining rebels, told AFP. “Basically, we couldn’t afford to go through with the tribunal. It would have been extremely expensive.”The tribunal had been established following the breakdown in communications with the players and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (now Zimbabwe Cricket), which came to a head with the removal of Streak as national captain. The ZCU was accused of racism by the players, but earlier this month it was cleared of all such charges by the ICC.The tribunal had consisted of three members. Norman Arendse was nominated by Zimbabwe Cricket and Justice Hungwe was chosen by the players, with both parties agreeing to Traicos’s appointment as chairman.