Carl Varga (Harare)

I know that CricInfo coverage is not under your control but I was surprised to see that this excellent cricket site had no live ball-by-ball coverage of our match against the West Indies President's XI. I know that is not maybe the most important cricket match happening in the world today, but if they can give live coverage of Boland v Easterns, and Tasmania v Victoria surely they could cover an international side against a lesser side. Or are they Klusenerised "we should be playing club cricket only". Klusener, you are a prat! Do you know of any other site which might cover this test?

Great to see Alistair Campbell back on form with his 116 against Board XI. Let's hope he can carry it on in the internationals v WI and more importantly into England. I hope Alistair gets to read this, as a lot of us feel he got a rough deal. Ignore the wallies and just play cricket, he's still one of the best batsmen we have. Just please try not to run when it looks a bit dicey, let the other team get you out.

I hope too that Grant Flower's opening of 69 spells the start of a return to form with the bat, although his bowling has been excellent (3/15 in 11 overs) Andy, let your brother bowl more. Good luck, guys -we'll be watching every ball bowled as usual. Go for it.

Reply: CricInfo is committed to covering as much cricket as possible live, and went to considerable efforts to get full close of play cards from the pre-Test tour matches. Unfortunately our selection of live matches is not governed by the importance of the match, but availability of scorers and coverage. Our extensive coverage of South African domestic matches is part of our committment as official site of the UCBSA, and much helped by the various Provinces providing facilities and scorers. Our infrastructure in the West Indies is currently less than ideal, and with no TV coverage, live coverage was not possible. We hope to improve this in the next few months, with the ultimate objective of providing live coverage of all first-class cricket! (Dave Liverman from the CricInfo help desk)

David Caldwell (USA)

I was reading a letter sent by a gentleman in Dallas, Texas, USA (Alan Makoni) who mentioned cricket was only played by English Blazer schools in the East. If he is looking to play cricket in the USA along with the other 10,000 people, mostly ex-pats, I would encourage him to look for more information on the USACA Web Site at http://www.usaca.org/. Good luck,

Monty Stephenson (Prince George, Canada)

I am a South African living in Canada and my only opportunity to follow cricket in a ice-hockey mad country is via the Internet, especially the CricInfo site.

I am extremely impressed by your internet site and the very interesting news, especially the profiles of some of your up and coming players. I am impressed at the number of black cricketers who have not had a cricket background via parents etc., who appear to be doing well and making the Zimbabwe side, especially Tatenda Taibu.

It appears that the South African cricket set up can learn from Zimbabwe in how to develop and provide opportunities for talented non-white players to achieve at the highest level. One would expect with the South African development system being in operation for a good 10 years already, that they would have a greater number of non-whites in their provincial teams, let alone the national side. Zimbabwe appear to be way ahead of them!!

I am following the Zimbabwe tour of the Windies with interest and hope the guys do well. Keep on providing this interesting newsletter - no fuel is needed for your trusty computer!

Reply: Thanks very much. Unfortunately fuel is needed to enable me to reach players to conduct interviews, and the next couple of weeks could be very difficult! Concerning the respective development programmes of South Africa and Zimbabwe, it is actually easier for Zimbabwe in one sense in that we have many fewer white players to choose from, so there are many more opportunities available for the top young black players.

Graeme Johnstone-Robertson (London)

I was just reading through archive news releases and came across the Zimbabwe "A" team list for the tour to Sri Lanka, and what bothered me was the selection footnote, three players from the Windies tour will join the party in Sri Lanka. If Zimbabwe was to expand its player base surely the best policy would be to send three young players from Zimbabwe to gain some "Test" experience.

I picked up a copy of the South African magazine, the "SA Cricket" dated March 2000 here in London, and in it is an article about the huge jump that young player experience. The publication goes on to say "The pressure put on understudy players has been great. Little first-class cricket is being played in Zimbabwe, and the next step down from test cricket for most players is the South African Bowl competition, competed by provincial "B" sides. The difference in standard is huge, and several young players have struggled to make the jump..." The article does go on to say that improvements are being made.

So giving future Test players these opportunities to travel would increase Zimbabwe's player "experience" base, as well as trying to encourage more "A" tours from the Test nations as well as the first eleven from Kenya and Bangladesh to Zimbabwe. The results of these matches would be irrelevant but the result of the experience gained will be enormous for the future of Zimbabwean Test cricket.