Men And The Cup

The South African cricket World Cup side is so full of fresh and exciting talent 8212; Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher 8212; that the focus has drifted away from the 32-year-old bowler from Bloemfontein. So he can8217;t have been too surprised when the match adjudicators at the Oval on Saturday decided that four for 17 off eight overs against England did not merit a man-of-the-match award.

Many of the 18,500 people at the ground disagreed. Donald is as good as one of their own. He8217;s married to an Englishwoman and settled in the Birmingham area. He8217;s been applauded and lauded at Warwickshire since the late 1980s. Donald himself had said before the World Cup that if he played against England at Edgbaston during the tournament, 8220;they8217;ll probably cheer me but want South Africa tolose.8221;

Twose of a kind

New Zealand8217;s clash with The West Indies tomorrow will see the two best left-handed batsmen on the planet facing each other. Well, according to Roger Twose anyway. When Brian Lara 8212; widely regarded as the world8217;s best left-hander 8212; was signed by English county side Warwickshire in 1994, shortly after scoring a World Test record of 375, he was greeted by a sign on his changing room clothes peg that read: 8220;Welcome to the second best left-hander in the world.8221; Twose8217;s tongue-in-cheek joke was soon put in perspective when, a few weeks later, Lara scored 501, the highest individual innings ever made in first-class cricket, against Durham.