I’d love to be sitting here saying I have played 50 Test matches rather than the 11 I have But

I’d love to be sitting here saying I have played 50 Test matches rather than the 11 I have But it’s not that desperate. I did not make the World Cup team [that won the trophy] and it was frustrating to sit back and watch that when I could have been a part of any of the other sides that played in the tournament.”It is the same in Test cricket too. “There are times when I sit back and think I could be playing for another country and the most disappointing time for me was in the 1999 World Cup in England. But unlike the fifth Beatle this wholehearted cricketer does get the odd gig even if it is only when one of the Aussie fab four – Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Shane Warne and Jason Gillespie – pick up an injury.”It has been frustrating because I want to play as much as I can,” Bichel said on his return to Port Elizabeth for tomorrow’s semi-final match against Sri Lanka.

Steve Waugh, who over the weekend made himself available for Australia’s forthcoming tour to the West Indies, told me that telling Bichel he wasn’t playing was one of his hardest jobs because he is such a good team man and cares so much about playing.At times Bichel must have felt like Pete Best. He has spent series after series sat beyond the boundary rope, tending to the needs of his mates whilst watching them make short work of their opponents. Since his international debut in January 1997 he has been their perennial 12th man. The 32-year-old is no stranger to England, where he has spent the last two summers playing for Worcestershire, but will be remembered more as the man who knocked Nasser Hussain’s side out of the World Cup than for his achievements at New Road? In what turned out to be their last match of the tournament, Bichel not only destroyed England’s fragile batting line-up with figures of 7 for 20 but broke English hearts with 34 not out as he and Michael Bevan put on 73 for the ninth wicket to clinch the game.But even the patriotism of this loyal servant has occasionally been tested by his inability to hold down a regular place in the all-conquering Australian side. Nothing gives the Queenslander more pleasure and pride than wearing the green and gold of his country or putting on the baggy green cap.
Bichel, with 15 wickets at an average of eight, has been excellent for Australia during this World Cup. Andy Bichel, the fast bowler, is the epitome of an Australian sportsman He is proud, passionate and dedicated to his job.

“I have had 10 great years, I have enjoyed all of them but it’s time to move on,” he said “I want to concentrate on the family business.”. I would be condoning the human rights violations that have been perpetrated – and continue to be perpetrated – against my countrymen.”Yesterday, Guy Whittall became the third Zimbabwe player to quit. “The stand I took in the World Cup has had repercussions that have affected both my career and my personal life.”If I were to continue to play for Zimbabwe in the midst of the prevailing crisis I would do so only by neglecting the voice of my conscience. Flower, 34 and once the leading batsman in one-day cricket, also retired from internationals after the Sri Lanka match.”My continued involvement with the Zimbabwean team has become untenable,” Olonga said in his retirement statement. “Henry is with the team, we’re all at the hotel.”In a statement the ZCU said: “The Union notes with regret that in his statement announcing his official retirement Olonga has, in a clear act of continued insubordination, gone on to yet again use the platform of the ICC Cricket World Cup to make a political statement.”At the match against Namibia, Olonga and veteran batsman Andy Flower symbolically wore black armbands “to mourn the death of democracy” under Mugabe’s regime.

“I think it’s all lies,” Babu Meman, the team’s media manager, said. He is reportedly seeking asylum in England in the wake of his “death of democracy” protest against Robert Mugabe’s regime during Zimbabwe’s World Cup opener against Namibia in Harare.Olonga is thought to be hiding in a “safe house” after Zimbabwean secret police officers travelled to East London, South Africa, to “escort” him to Harare, where the maximum penalty for treason is death.A Zimbabwe cricket spokesman, however, insisted Olonga was with the squad. Henry Olonga, reportedly in hiding to avoid treason charges, has again been rebuked by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union for using the World Cup to make political statements.
Olonga announced his international retirement following Zimbabwe’s defeat to Sri Lanka on Saturday, saying it was too dangerous for him to return to Harare. Devonish maintained that it was the outdoor season which counted – “Do you remember who won this title four years ago? I don’t” – but he will have drawn confidence as he looks ahead to the August World Championships in Paris.. Like Washington, the 26-year-old Coventry Godiver Harrier was far from keen about running indoors but he was happy enough to have made the decision.”Everything fell into place for me,” he said, admitting that he had been helped by the absence of the former champion Frankie Fredericks, and the Americans John Capel, who was injured, and defending Shawn Crawford, who was disqualified in the semi-finals. “I don’t believe it could have been an accident,” she said.For Devonish there was not a single negative moment as he proceeded to his first major 200m title in a time of 20.62sec. It took five injections to remove the edge of pain from an injury which is likely to require an operation this week, but Hansen, who responded to an opening effort of 14.88 by Cameroon’s Fran?se Mbango with a jump of 15.01m, was a satisfied athlete, albeit one still seething from what she described as an attempt to “sabotage” her.Her performance was all the more impressive for the way in which she kept her composure after discovering that the piece of tape she was using to mark her run-up had turned up three metres away alongside that of another competitor.