Omar Nawaz (Sri Lanka Tourist Board, France)

I read with interest and emotion the interviews of Neil Johnson (Zimbabwe Online) and Andy Flower (On Playing Sri Lanka: What is it really like?) and despite the Goodwin issue I am glad that there is still some goodwill left between the players.

Sri Lanka will be hosting the Under 19 World Cup in January/February and an 'A' team from Zimbabwe in 2000. Some new and picturesque venues have been added to the traditional grounds and I hope they will be appreciated.

Good luck to the newsletter! The interviews gave a good insight to an outsider. Hope more follow!

Robin Mence (England)

Zimbabwe cricket it would appear has at last established a Test fixture list that befits its status. The current season is a very busy one and the 2000/01 season also looks promising with tours to India & Australia planned and visits expected from New Zealand, West Indies and possibly S.Lanka & Pakistan.

The domestic Logan Cup has expanded and will offer national participation and a healthy number of fixtures. 'A' Team tours are now being arranged with a visit last season by England and a trip to S.Lanka in April 2000. These hopefully will continue on a regular basis together with U19 tours.

Which brings me to the main point of this letter. It was a continued theme of much commentary coming out of Zimbabwe during the early years of Test status that they could not obtain recognition from the major Test-playing nations (30 of Zimbabwe's 39 Tests have been against Sri Lanka, Pakistan & New Zealand). This appears to be changing. However, what about Zimbabwe's attitude toward Bangledesh & Kenya! It is now nearly three years since these countries were given International & first-class status but not a meaningful tour between these countries has taken place. The normal Zimbabwe willingness of going anywhere for a ODI tournament should not count.

The case of Kenya is the hardest to understand due to geography. A tour by Kenya in Sept/Oct 1999 with four or five three-day matches against Mashonaland, Matabeleland, Zim Academy & two 'A' Tests with ODIs to follow would not only been of benefit to the tourists but would have been good preparation for the hosts' ensuing international season. These matches would have good practice for the existing test squad who had just finished a full nine months of solid ODIs but would have also given the selectors a good look at the young pretenders.

I expect the answer to my question will be that of money (or lack of it). Would not matches between these two African countries catch the imagination of the Zimbabwean & Kenyan public? Would it not also encourage other African nations to develop their cricket? Also, I think it would be true to say that if Kenya are going one day to progress to Test status then Zimbabwe more than any other country will need to participate in their development.

It would be interesting to have the views of the editorial panel and the ZCU.

Reply:ZCU chief executive Dave Ellman-Brown replies: Tours to Kenya and Bangladesh have taken place in the form of one-day triangular tournaments. Due to our very busy 1999/2000 schedule it was not possible to consider extended tours by either country. This does not mean to say that this will not happen in the future.

Graham van Tonder (UK)

Again another good and informative newsletter - very interested to read through the various club sides. Made me realise the extent to which Zimbabwe is developing some player depth at last. Re that rather condemning letter with respect to the selectors - could we perhaps have some interviews with them? It's be good to bring them into the forum, and to hear their views, aims and plans. Cannot wait for the Zimbabwe tour of England next year!!

Reply: Yes, we will try to interview the convenor Andy Pycroft in the near future. What questions would readers like us to put to him?

Jamie Fowle (UK)

I have just found your Magazine via CricInfo and just wanted to congratulate those behind its inception. I feel it's a credit to those behind it and really shows up the cricketing authorities of supposedly larger cricketing nations. I look forward to continue reading it in the future. On a cricketing note, I admit that I'm not the best qualified to make comment on Zimbabwean cricket being English and viewing from afar but I'd like to know if possible a couple of things. How bad is Streak's injury - as an England fan looking forward to the coming series in the summer, I'd like to see a full strength Zimbabwe team against us and why was Brent dropped for the Third Test - was it injury? as he certainly didn't appear to let your team down in the 2nd Test. Also, is the return of Paul Strang likely any time in the future as with your seeming spin problems, he surely has to come back in your National team.

Keep up the good work and looking forward to the next news letter,

Reply: Streak is recovering slowly and it is hoped he will be fit for the triangular series in South Africa. Barring further injury, he should certainly be in England next year. The selectors omitted Brent as they considered Brandes and Price the more attacking bowlers and more likely to bring victory in the Third Test. Paul Strang should be fit to play again in January, he hopes.

David Colin-Thome (A Sri Lankan living in Oz)

Let me first congratulate you on an excellent website and for your coverage of Zimbabwe cricket. I have read with great interest your view on the controversial running out of Murray Goodwin in the 2nd Test against Sri Lanka. My view is that Goodwin had every right to be disgusted - not with the Sri Lankans, but with his own lack of concentration and or knowledge of the rules.

Certainly, being within the rules does not always equate to "the spirit of the game". We only have to recall the Trevor Chappell underarm ball to enhance this point. As you state, if a bowler whips off the bails prior to delivering a ball and without forewarning the batsman, it is considered unethical though well within the rules of the game. However, there can be no correlation between this scenario and the Goodwin run out. With the former, the scenario is always the same and is quite cut and dried. In a Goodwin style run-out, there is potential for numerous scenarios to arise.

Former Australian batsman Dean Jones is a good case in point. Jones was run out on two occasions (both against the West Indies) in strange, if not controversial circumstances. One was clearly a mistake on the umpires' part because the fielder threw the stumps down after Jones left the crease in a misapprehension that he was out caught. Jones did not realize that the delivery had been no-balled. This is against the rules which, incredibly, neither umpire was aware of at the time. The other run-out incident has a closer resemblance to the one of Goodwin. The West Indies noticed that Jones had a habit of turning his back on the ball whilst out of his crease after defensively pushing it forward, and when there was no obvious possibility of a run. On one such occasion, the ball was fielded innocuously and unhurriedly with no obvious activity to transpire till the bowler's next delivery. Jones turned his back on the ball and was startled when the stumps in front of him were rattled and he was still a few inches out of the crease.

The Aussies were disgusted too. They were disgusted that an experienced Test cricketer like Jones could be so careless in getting himself run out in such a manner. Needless to say, Dean Jones got over that habit ever since.

The Sri Lankans themselves have not been sheltered from the harsh realities of professional cricket. As a fledgling and an aspiring Test cricket nation in the 1975 World Cup, the amateur-status Sri Lankan batsmen copped a horrific physical mauling from Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee in their match against Ian Chappell's great Australian team. Sunil Wettimuny, the Sri Lankan opening batsmen was struck on his toe with one of Thomson's famed sand-shoe crushers. Wettimuny's big toe was broken and he hopped about in agony and ended up out of his crease. The ball which had rebounded back to the bowler was picked up by Thomson who then attempted to throw the stumps down! Thomson's throw however was not as accurate as Dilshan's. In any event, the batsmen quite rightly would not have been given out under the laws of the game. However, what Thomson's instinctive reaction indicates is the psyche of the modern-day professional cricketer (if not the Australian psyche) - not always a pretty sight, but incredibly effective.

Throughout its history, we take the evolved etiquette of cricket for granted, but which is not necessarily based on logic or consistency. I mean, try explaining to a 'Yank' why a fielder who claims a 'bumped' catch is a cheat and why a fielder who claims a catch when the ball is light years away from the bat, is not.

One thing for sure, when the nine captains have their annual "pow-wow", the ethics of running out a batsman will not be on the agenda. There are just far too numerous possibilities and scenarios involved. The bottom line is plain and simple. Every schoolboy cricketer knows when the ball is dead. Therefore, a batsmen who is run out can never ever blame the fielding side. This simple philosophy eliminates all controversy in this area. Murray Goodwin who learned his trade in Australia, the hardest school of knocks, should have known better than anyone else. Your description that "Goodwin absent-mindedly wandered out of his crease" says it all - Goodwin's mind was not on the job, the Sri Lankans' were.

However, far more serious an incident which has been completely clouded over, is the subsequent allegation that Goodwin threw a water bottle at the Sri Lankan skipper when they came into the pavilion for the tea break. An alleged criminal act is significantly more alarming than the perceived breaching of cricketing etiquette. This, I have noted, has received very little exposure and or condemnation from the Zimbabwe media (that I have been privy to, anyway).

Finally, thank you for the excellent interview with Andy Flower. Under the circumstances, his personal comments about the Sri Lankans can only be described as magnanimous and admirable, and does say a lot about the 'man'. Flower is no doubt one of Zimbabwe's great cricketers, both, on and off the field.

I look forward to your coverage of the 3rd Test and congratulate you once again on an excellent website.

Reply: You make some very interesting points, but the fact remains that Zimbabweans were outraged by the dismissal. I think getting a basic agreement on such matters is important to avoid future controversies; it is precisely because the situation is viewed differently in different countries (and South Africans and Englishmen over here supported the Zimbabwean viewpoint strongly) that it would be advisable to work for such an agreement. If it goes against us, then we know where we stand and cannot protest should a similar incident occur in the future.

I only heard a few days later that Goodwin was alleged to have thrown water from a bottle (rather than a bottle itself) at Jayasuriya afterwards - if true, it illustrates the depth of feeling in Zimbabwe and the need for common policy but is nevertheless completely inexcusable.

Michael Gorey (Australia)

Congratulations on the newsletter. It's great to read about cricket in Zimbabwe on a regular basis. I may have missed an article, but how long before Paul Strang and Heath Streak are back, and what is Adam Huckle's future? I thought they were Zimbabwe's three best bowlers, along with Henry Olonga, at least when it comes to bowling sides out.

I hope Alastair Campbell can make some runs in the Third Test. Good luck to the Zimbabwe team.

Reply: The situation with Streak and Strang is included as a reply to another letter, above. We are all wondering about Adam Huckle's future! He is very busy on the farm in Matabeleland at present and has given no indication of when he intends to return; neither has he made himself available to comment any further, so we are beginning to wonder if he ever will.

Matthew Thorne (UK)

Maybe in either the online magazine or the Zimbabwe website there should be a page(s) on the academy. With things like who the players are, who they are playing and scorecards, where the academy is, etc.

Reply: I agree. The director Gwynne Jones agreed to contribute, but he has now gone on holiday without giving me anything, so we hope to get something from him only in the New Year. We do include a list of next year's intake, though.

Mike Haines (Vic Falls)

This is fantastic !

I definitely have to question the decision to have three different opening partners for Grant Flower in three Tests.

The news that Neil Johnson has been instructed to concentrate on his batting only is also a cause for concern. I suggest an immediate lengthy break to recuperate - what are our long-term priorities? I would say beating England at Lord's in May / June ?

Reply: The selectors believe Neil Johnson will be fit to bowl again before the tour of England - so we live and hope!