17-yr-old Dutch bat eyeing Ponting’s shirt

• Chandigarh: Sultan Bawa, a smalltime glassware artist from Nayagaon village near Chandigarh has made a miniscule replica of the World Cup trophy. All of 2.25 cm the miniature trophy has caught public fancy in Punjab. Bawa says he would like to send his creation for an entry into the Limca Book of Records and Guiness Book of Records.

Rift reports denied

• Karachi: Pakistan team management has dismissed reports of rifts in the World Cup cricket team as “false propaganda by gossip mongers” and said they shared a perfect working relation among themselves. Team manager PJ Mir said people with vested interests were trying to malign the Pakistani team by spreading false reports of growing rift within the camp.

Cricket? What’s that?

• Amsterdam: The Netherlands became part of World Cup history 24 hours earlier but on Saturday few of their citizens knew much about their being trounced by 221 runs by South Africa. ‘South Africa much too strong, Dutch cricketers outclassed at World Cup’, read the headline of the match report in quality broadsheet NRC Handelsblad, who also carried a picture of the match on the front page. It was news to people on the street, however. “I didn’t know there was a Dutch team. But I guess they have teams for everything,” said Giovanni, who works in a Haarlem hospital.