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Associate Member Bermuda picked up two prizes in the ICC Development Program Annual Awards, making them the success story in this year’s competition. They were awarded the Best Overall Cricket Development Program and the Photo of the year titled “It’s a Catch”.A happy Reginald Pearman, president of the Bermuda Cricket Board, said: “I am excited and proud that Bermuda cricket has won these distinguished awards, which confirm that we are making progress in the right direction when it comes to our strategic goals. I am particularly pleased with the growth in our junior membership and the fact that our women’s team participated in the Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Stellenbosch and our youngsters appeared in the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia makes me even more proud.”Jos Heggleman won the Volunteer of the Year Award for his outstanding contribution to the game in the Netherlands, while the Hong Kong Cricket Association won the Best Cricket Promotion and Marketing Award for the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes.Cricket Indonesia’s Tetrapak U-19 Development Program was declared the Best Junior Cricket Initiative program. Deutscher Cricket Bund did well in the Global Awards, picking up the Best Women’s Cricket Initiative prize for their U-19 Women’s Tournament in Oldenburg, Germany. The best Spirit of Cricket Initiative in Partnership with UNAIDS was won by the Mozambique Cricket Federation’s National Commission for School Cricket.John Wright of Ireland and Laurie Pieters of Namibia won Lifetime Service Awards for their long and dedicated service to cricket development not only in their home countries, but also internationally, given both have served on several ICC committees.Wright, the honorary secretary of the Irish Cricket Union for 10 years until stepping down this year, said: “I am extremely delighted to receive this award. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in cricket and I must admit that it is very pleasing to be acknowledged and honoured for your services. It’s been a privilege to be part of the ICC Development Program and I wish it best of luck in the future”Ray Mali, the ICC president, who served as one of the four global judges alongside former ICC presidents Ehsan Mani and Malcolm Gray and MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw, said: “This whole process has shown once again the outstanding work being done in the development of cricket around the world. It was immensely difficult to select the winners but those lucky enough to be chosen reflect the contributions they have made to our wonderful worldwide sport. Everyone involved, winners and those not chosen, deserve immense credit for their efforts.”Best Overall Cricket Development Program Bermuda Cricket BoardBest Women’s Cricket Initiative Oldenburg U-19 Women’s Tournament (Germany)Best Junior Cricket Initiative Tetrapak U-19 Development program (Indonesia)Best Cricket Promotional and Marketing Award – Hong Kong Cricket Sixes (Hong Kong)Best Spirit of Cricket Award in Partnership with UNAIDS – National Commission for School Cricket (Mozambique)Photo of the Year Award “It’s a Catch” (Bermuda)Volunteer of the Year Jos Heggleman (The Netherlands)Lifetime Service Award John Wright (Ireland) and Laurie Pieters (Namibia)Each Global award category is allocated US$2000 of equipment to be received by the winning national cricket body.

Adam Gilchrist sweeps one of eight sixes in his amazing century © AFP

What can you say of a man that makes 149 in a World Cup final? That he illuminated a game that ended in darkness? That he’s a once-in-a-lifetime player? That he made a difficult art appear ludicrously simple? That we shall never see his like again? Words alone could never do justice to the incandescence of Adam Gilchrist’s strokeplay, or capture the spirit of a man who batted almost ethereally on a pitch where other gifted players had to work hard for runs.Even if he’d gone for a first-ball duck, Gilchrist would still be one of the first names on the team-sheet when someone sits down to pick an all-time XI. There have been great batsmen, and great wicketkeepers, but few have coalesced the two skills together quite like the man who moved across the Nullarbor Plain to Western Australia because he wasn’t getting a game for his native New South Wales.At 35, Gilchrist’s halcyon years are behind him. The figures suggest as much, with just 656 runs at 27.33 in 25 one-day games before today and 815 runs at 30.18 in his last 20 Tests. But with the instinct of an ageing prizefighter up in lights at Madison Square Garden for the last time, he summoned all his skill and experience to deliver the knockout blows in this World Cup final.His ten previous outings in the Caribbean had fetched him just 304 runs, a figure swelled by half-centuries against the Netherlands and Bangladesh. Comparisons can perhaps be made to Sir Vivian Richards who had tallied only 79 runs in three innings at the 1979 edition before igniting like a Catherine-Wheel for 138 in the final.But where the Richards innings was a more measured affair, with Collis King supplying the pyrotechnics, Gilchrist blazed away from the moment that he picked up a Chaminda Vaas delivery and lofted it over the man at square leg. There was one chance, a tough return catch to Dilhara Fernando when he had 31, but apart from that and the odd miscue that fell safely, it was a resplendent innings, one that made Matthew Hayden, the tournament’s top run-scorer with 659 runs, seem like a jittery amateur.”It was a brilliant innings,” Mahela Jayawardene said afterwards.”Unfortunately, I was the opposition captain looking at it. He did the same to us in a VB Series final at Brisbane last year. Our guys stuck at it, but it was just brilliant hitting.”The century that Jayawardene referred to, on Valentine’s Day in 2006, was Gilchrist’s 14th for Australia. Since then, he had gone 33 matches without reaching three figures, and he acknowledged afterwards that he owed his team a special performance. “It’s been a frustrating sort of tournament for me,” he said. “I was part of some partnerships without really nailing down a big score.

Gilchrist briefly loses control on the way to 149 from 104 balls © AFP

“The standards that this group sets are so high and if you feel you’re not meeting them, you tend to put pressure on yourself and even doubt yourself. I got the belief to rise above that from my team-mates and the coaching staff. It’s amazing how much that can lift you.”On the field, the reprieve from Fernando was all the encouragement that he needed. Later in the same over, he swung one down to the square-leg fence, following up with a thunderbolt that nearly took Hayden with it to the boundary. But Fernando’s punishment wasn’t complete, and a free-flowing swing sent the next ball over mid-on and perilously close to a fire engine.A monstrous hit into the 3Ws stand behind the sightscreen at the Joel Garner End was the harbinger of bad times for Sri Lanka, and though Fernando nearly cleaned him up with a clever slower ball, any bubbles of hope were quickly dispersed with some stunning shots. A flat six over mid-off kept the fielder on the boundary interested for the longest time, but there was no hint of good fortune in the encore, a gorgeous drive straight past the bowler. When he subsequently edged Fernando for four in his next over, the rueful smile from the bowler revealed what many inside the stadium already felt. The game was up.”As far as I’m concerned, he hasn’t played a better one,” Ricky Ponting said. “He hardly missed the middle of the bat all day. Matty Hayden, who’s probably been batsman of the tournament, was looking shaky and scratchy and pretty ordinary at the other end. The one difference between the teams today was Gilly’s innings. To be able to go out and play like that in a final says a lot about the bloke.”It says something about the man too that he batted with a squash ball inside his left glove, advice from Bob Meuleman in Perth that he acknowledged with a special gesture immediately after completing a 72-ball century. And if such a bountiful cake needed any icing, it came in the shape of the tumbling catch that ensured Glenn McGrath, the greatest bowler of our age and a good mate, wouldn’t go quietly into the Barbados night.Long before the farce-tinged end, the Australian fans were celebrating by singing along to , the Men at Work classic. While Gilchrist was out there though, they weren’t watching a man at work. They watched genius.

Dhoni is in favour of a rotation policy to ease the burden of tight playing schedules © Getty Images

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian wicketkeeper, says that rotating players will help counter the burnout issue and prolong the careers of players.”When a rotation policy is there, there is no issue of burnout. We get enough rest in between [matches] to recharge our batteries,” Dhoni told Press Trust of India. “It [rotation] gives every player a chance to excel. If the same eleven are playing continously, the players will get burnt out.”Rotation allows other guys in the 14-15 member squad a chance to gain experience so that when the right time comes they can also excel. There should not be any insecurity. It [rotation] is for their own good, for a long career you need to preserve yourself.”Dhoni’s comments came a day after Virender Sehwag, the Indian vice-captain, told reporters that several players, including Rahul Dravid, the captain, had asked the Indian board reduce the number of matches. “There is too much cricket,” Sehwag had said. “Players need a break because they may burn out. They need time for fitness also, time to think about their game and to recharge their batteries. If we want to win the World Cup, we need every player to be fit.” However, Dhoni said that he was unaware that the issue had been raised with the board.Amid the debate, Harbhajan Singh, the Indian offspinner, suggested that players worried about being consumed by too much cricket could opt for rest. “I don’t mind playing as much cricket as possible because I love the game,” he said. “In fact, I don’t think there is too much cricket in BCCI’s schedule in the current season. If any player feels it, he can always request the Board to give him rest. Instead of adopting a compulsory rotation policy, players should voluntarily ask for rest if they want so.”Harbhajan added that as far as he was concerned, no amount of cricket was too much.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marvan Atapattu prepare for the showdown © Cricinfo Ltd

Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle are among the big-name absentees from West Indies’ squad to face Sri Lanka in the forthcoming Test series, but Tony Howard, the team manager, is hoping that his young and inexperienced cricketers will rise to the occasion.”We have a very good and exciting team on tour here and we expect them to come good individually for West Indies,” said Howard at a media conference in Colombo. “These young men have been asked to replace the senior players but sometimes we realise the senior players are also junior players. Now we have a new crop of players looking to stamp their authority on the game of cricket.”Negotiations are currently taking place between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the Players’ Association to end the bitter contracts dispute that has brought the game to its knees in the Caribbean, but Howard admitted that the possibility of any other players joining the squad now was very remote.”Like every other player on tour here you have the option to choose if you want to participate or not,” said Howard. “That is you make a decision on your future. Whether or not it is the end of the road for the senior players, only they can decide that.” The WICB picked six players from the Caribbean and added eight others from the West Indies A team currently touring Sri Lanka, to make up a 14-man squad, captained by Shivnarine Chanderpaul.Howard was philosophical about the impact that the impasse would have. “Like any other aspect of life cricket evolves,” he said. “If you check our history you will find out it has happened time and time again with every international team. I certainly remember the time when it happened during the Packer series and out of that came Malcolm Marshall, Sylvester Clarke and players like that.”I have absolutely no doubt that you are going to find a similar occurrence here. This is just another stage of evolution of cricket in the Caribbean. I think out of this will come better than senior players.”Despite his team’s inexperience, Howard denied that the series would be a cakewalk for Sri Lanka. “A Test match is a competition between two teams. As you know cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. Anybody can win. Sometimes the toss makes the difference, on other occasions it is a brilliant innings or a great spell of bowling. It depends on who is best on the day.”Bennett King, West Indies’ coach, said the whole side was focusing on solutions not problems. “We are trying to keep moving forward. We’ve been trying to focus on the present and absorb the moment that we have got together and that we are here. That’s what is important.”Chanderpaul was equally upbeat, and cited the talents of a new generation of Caribbean cricketers. “We have a group of young, new and exciting players like Xavier Marshall, Ryan Ramdass, Narasingh Deonarine and Tino Best who are keen and ready to play Test cricket. I know they are capable of doing the job. This is a good opportunity for them to make a name for themselves. I don’t have much to worry about.”

West End Redbacks batsman Chris Davies today announced his retirement from first-class cricket.25-year-old Davies recently underwent surgery for the fourth time on his left shoulder which has led to his decision to retire.Davies, who plays Grade cricket for the Adelaide Cricket Club, made his first-class debut in 1997-98 and has played 25 first-class games since that time. He was recently awarded the 2003 Tanya Denver Award, for sportsmanship and endeavour, at the Channel 7-The Advertiser Sports Star of the Year Awards.Chris says that it was an enormously difficult decision to make."Since undergoing surgery two weeks ago, it became apparent that my shoulder was not going to recover to the level required to play first-class cricket.""This was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. I will miss the camaraderie with the boys – some of whom have become life-long friends.""I would like thank both the SACA and the Australian Cricketer’s Association for their continued support," he said.Redbacks coach Wayne Phillips says that Chris will be sorely missed from the SACA."Chris embodies all that we want from Redbacks cricketers – enthusiasm, desire, their ethic on and off the field. He does it in such an uncomplaining way.""He will be sorely missed from a playing point of view but we hope to be able to retain him in some capacity at the SACA," he said."

Mystery surrounds the participation of India ‘A’ in the upcoming Carib Beer Cricket Series which bowls off on Friday.It is still unclear if the tourists will indeed be in the region for the competition. A check with the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) public relations handlers yesterday evening revealed they had been trying to contact the Board for Cricket Control of India (BCCI) for some time without success.Further checks with the official website of the Indian board and monitoring of newspaper revealed nothing, and it is not sure if a team has been selected as yet, or if any systems have been put in place.India ‘A’ are due to bowl off against West Indies ‘B’ at the Windward Cricket Club, St Philip, the second first-class match at that venue. If the Indian reserves fail to make the trip the other teams in the eight-match competition would be awarded a bye.Last night, a Barbados Cricket Association official said it had received no word on the Indians’ arrival and had little details to go by. The official however added that they had gone ahead to make hotel booking and land travel arrangements.Efforts to contact officials of the WICB yesterday proved futile, but NATIONSPORT understands that WICB president Wes Hall was in recent contact with Indian board president Jagmohan Dalmiya, but the details of their discussions were not available.This is the third time an ‘A’ team has been invited to participate in the regional competition. England ‘A’ was the first to visit in 2000 for the Busta Cricket Series, while Bangladesh ‘A’ participated last year.

(Up to and including 14th June 2001 v Kent at West End)

BATTING AVERAGES – Including fieldingName                M     I   NO  Runs   HS    Avge  100  50   Ct  StL.R.Prittipaul      3     6    1   265  175*  53.00    1   –    2   -I.H.Shah            4     7    1   264   81   44.00    –   2    –   -J.S.Laney           5    10    1   342   88   38.00    –   3    5   -I.Brunnschweiler    5    10    4   219   58*  36.50    –   2   16   -A.J.Sexton          5     9    0   253   56   28.11    –   2    6   -A.D.Edwards         2     4    2    54   25*  27.00    –   –    –   -J.R.C.Hamblin       5    10    0   240   56   24.00    –   1    1   -G.A.Lamb            3     6    0   131   30   21.83    –   –    1   -J.E.K.Schofield     5     8    1    94   22   13.42    –   –    1   -D.Jackson           2     4    0    42   38   10.50    –   –    1   -Z.C.Morris          5     9    1    75   16    9.37    –   –    2   -J.H.K.Adams         5    10    0    75   15    7.50    –   –    7   -J.A.Tomlinson       3     4    2     6    4    3.00    –   –    1   -J.P.Stephenson      1     2    0   103   67   51.50    –   1    –   -J.D.Francis         1     2    0    91   82   45.50    –   1    1   -R.L.Powell          1     2    0     7    7    3.50    –   –    –   -Name               O      M     R     W   Avge  Best   5w 10w    SRJ.P.Stephenson    14.3    1    57     6   9.50  5-41    1   –   14.50A.D.Edwards       36     10   102    10  10.20  3-14    –   –   21.60J.E.K.Schofield  122.4   37   318    26  12.23  4-20    –   –   28.30Z.C.Morris        61.2   18   204    13  15.69  3-13    –   –   28.30J.R.C.Hamblin    156.3   54   375    22  17.04  5-43    1   –   42.68I.H.Shah          73     16   229     8  28.62  3-77    –   –   54.75J.A.Tomlinson     78     14   259     9  28.77  3-22    –   –   52.00J.H.K.Adams        9      3     9     1   9.00  1-2     –   –   54.00L.R.Prittipaul    11.4    4    34     1  34.00  1-4     –   –   70.00R.L.Powell         1      1     0     0    –     –      –   –     –

Barcelona is going through a hard period in these past couple of years as the club is struggling to reach the peak form that it had during the 2010s. However, this isn’t something that should surprise football fans. Why? Because it is a well-known fact that all clubs go through a period of great success, then fall off and need a couple of years to recoup and get back to the top.

Ups and downs are part of the journey and that is what Barcelona is experiencing at the moment. After falling off in the Champions League, Barcelona is now set to compete in the Europa League, which is something that left many speechless as they are used to watching this club perform with the best in Europe.

Punters are fond of these developments, though. They consider Barcelona as the clear favourite to win the Europa League and earn itself a spot in the CL next year. After all, Europa League is still a trophy and it counts in the total tally.

The odds are also decent and this is a win-win situation for bettors. Not only will they be able to play a so-called safe bet, but they might end up earning a decent reward in the process. Of course, there are tons of other bet types and predictions in store and if you are thinking of placing a bet, feel free to take a look at the latest Europa League predictions from squawka.com.

Barcelona might even reap a few benefits from the fact that it is in the Europa League this season and these benefits mostly concern its young stars. Here’s why.

They Will Get Familiar With the Feeling of Playing in a Major Tournament

Many of the young stars in the club were thrown into the pit when they started competing in the Champions League. After all, the CL is the cream of the crop and there’s a chance that it may have been a bit too much to handle. After all, we are talking about young boys who are just experiencing what pressure means.

Europa League is the perfect competition where they can learn the importance of being in a major international tournament without the pressure and eyes on them. You always start small and gradually graduate and that is exactly what the transition from Europa League to the Champions League means.

A Chance to Develop

Europa League is a second-tier tournament. Now, we’re not saying that this competition features weak teams, but there’s no denying the fact that the teams that are competing in the Champions League are far better than the ones competing in Europa League.

This is a good thing for Barca’s young stars as it provides them with a great chance to develop and learn everything about them individually, but also how to play as a collective. After all, Barca is known for its team play and the so-called tiki-taka tactic.

Experimenting with new strategies against the calibre of Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester City, PSG, etc., is not the best option, but many Europa League teams are below Barca’s standard and that provides the young stars with the perfect chance to learn something new. Plus, it is also a benefit for Xavi as he will be able to determine what are the strengths and the weaknesses of his players and thus, come up with the best tactics.

Barcelona Needs a Break from the Champions League

At the beginning of this article, we mentioned that Barcelona is not the team that it once was. However, everyone at the club is so keen on holding on to its former glory and that may have torn it apart. Trying to compete against the best even though you are not in their realm might have a negative effort on the team’s mentality.

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In other words, a break is needed from time to time, and the entry to the Europa League might be a good thing for the young stars as they will start building up a winning mentality in an international tournament and build up from that point.

After a while, they will be able to use that mentality to achieve better results in higher competitions, such as the Champions League.

Photo from Pexels

	Jamie Siddons: “He [Dale Steyn] ripped us apart in the second innings with 150 kph outswingers or inswingers to the left-handers” © AFP

Following their five-wicket defeat in the first Test, Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, said he does not expect his side to beat South Africa unless a miracle occurs.Siddons said the Bangladesh batsmen were not used to batting against the sort of pace generated by South Africa’s fast bowlers. “They [the batsmen] go from playing for their clubs in the National League to trying to take on the best fast bowler in the world. [Dale] Steyn kept striking in the first few overs and we never recovered. We spent the [whole] Test trying to recover all the time. He [Steyn] ripped us apart in the second innings with 150 kph outswingers [to the right-handers] or inswingers to the left-handers.””When your batsmen are out of confidence and having to play against Steyn, Morne Morkel or Makhaya Ntini, that is a tough assignment. The pressure they transmitted is too much for our batsmen at the moment. Their bowlers were just too good for our batsmen.”Despite the loss, Siddons was not keen on changing the squad for the second Test. “You’ve got to give young players time. I think they have the talent to improve, even if it takes eight years. What happens if we bring all the experienced players back in and get the same results? I’m not going to do that.”Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, felt his side had to work hard for the win because of the nature of the Mirpur wicket. “[It] is a little tougher than the other subcontinent wickets,” Smith said.”The lack of bounce and pace is something we took some time to get used to. It is good to see the way the guys played in the second innings to chase down more than 200 runs.”Having bowled out Bangladesh for 192 in the first innings, South Africa proceeded to concede a 22-run lead when they were bowled out in 60.3 overs. Smith said that after playing three months at home, using a different style and game plan, coming to Bangladesh had been a wake-up call. “Our whole style of playing we were brought up with is turned day and night here. You need a whole different technique as a batsman, as a bowler, in your thinking method and in the ways you get people out. It all changes.”These are not our natural conditions here. We have to learn how to play here, we have to adapt our style and I think we’ve done that now. We’ve won series in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh so obviously we are much more accustomed to playing here now. We’ve found a way to adapt our cricket to do well here.”Smith was impressed with Shahadat Hossain, the Bangladesh right-arm seamer, who took a career-best match haul of 9 for 97. “He [Shahadat] used the conditions well, he got reverse-swing, which made it tough. He bowled the ball in the right areas. And I think [Mohammad] Rafique really did a good job in the first innings containing one end, which made it difficult for us to score.”The second Test will start on February 29 in Chittagong and will be followed by three one-dayers between the two sides.

‘He’s working harder, he’s enjoying his cricket … He keeps going, that’s the character of the guy’ – Jayawardene lauds Jayasuriya © Getty Images

Mahela Jayawardene admits Sanath Jayasuriya’s decision to put his Test match retirement on hold could be the decisive factor in his country’s World Cup bid.The 37-year-old Jayasuriya briefly retired from Tests last year before changing his mind and returning to the ranks. Despite his age, the veteran of the 1996 World Cup winning team is enjoying a new lease of life in the Caribbean and looked near his best during his 115 against West Indies on Sunday, his 25th one-day century.”We felt when you come into a World Cup year it’s important you play all the matches. When you play all the time it keeps you going so it probably was a good decision for him to come back and play Test cricket as well,” said Jayawardene.”He’s been brilliant. He’s working harder, he’s enjoying his cricket and he played some really good innings, not just the one you saw against the West Indies. He keeps going, that’s the character of the guy.”Sri Lanka, who were facing England in their latest Super Eights match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Wednesday, are being tipped as potential World Cup winners with their exciting mixture of youth and experience. Jayawardene, whose side crushed England 5-0 last year, believes that tour, where they also drew the Test series 1-1, was a crucial staging point in the squad’s development.”It was a brilliant tour for us but we’ve come a long way. From that start in England we’ve pushed on and played some really good cricket,” said Jayawardene. “The youngsters learnt a lot from that England trip. From there onwards guys like Lasith Malinga and Upul Tharanga have come up pretty well.”The 2006 series in England culminated in an emphatic eight-wicket win at Headingley where Tharanga (109) and Jayasuriya (152) shared a world record first-wicket stand of 286 as Sri Lanka won with more than 12 overs to spare.Jayawardene, who said that series had been the launch-pad for a run of form that has seen Sri Lanka tipped to repeat their 1996 World Cup triumph here, said he didn’t expect last year’s series to have too much of a bearing now. But he warned: “It depends if England is thinking about it.””For us it’s not an issue because we are playing in different situations, different tournament, different conditions and probably different personnel as well. Things have changed since we played England.”Sri Lanka enjoyed a crushing 113-run victory against hosts West Indies in Guyana on Sunday and Jayawardene, who scored a morale-boosting 82 in that match, said: “The mood is pretty good. The way we played against West Indies was very satisfying.