Date-stamped : 06 Jul94 - 14:26
Grumbles over Wasim and Lara add spice to duel

Ten weeks into the season, everybody is  still  waiting  for  the
breaking of the Warwickshire bubble. Wider and wider it stretches
so that it can now cover the  famous  Brumbrella.  Not  even  the
club's mini-dispute with Brian Lara this week, over his irregular
appearances in the field, can cloud their unbeaten summer.

After talking to Lara about the 16 hours he  has  missed  with  a
variety  of complaints, Dennis Amiss, the club's chief executive,
said everybody was happy: lot of pressure but we are  happy  with
what he has done for the club.''

So he jolly well should be. Warwickshire have gone  further  into
the season without defeat than any other team since the introduc-
tion of a fourth competition, the Benson and Hedges Cup, in 1972.
Opponents greet that rare thing, the Lara failure, with a fanfare
of trumpets and a promise of drinks on the house.

Once again, the question of agents and their business  is  likely
to arise.  Is Lara being pushed beyond the bounds of endurance to
line other people's pockets?

Earlier this season, Amiss  was  quoted  as  saying  how  helpful
agents  were in cutting through the thicket of modern cricket. He
may not be so cheerful now.

In the latest round of championship  matches,  Warwickshire  play
Lancashire  at  Edgbaston  in  a game of two highly paid overseas
players. Lara, who has had a precautionary  X-ray  on  his  knee,
will  bat  against Wasim Akram, who missed Lancashire's victories
against Hampshire and Glamorgan.

The brilliant but injury-prone Pakistani all-rounder  has  almost
exhausted  his  fund of goodwill at Old Trafford. The player Lan-
cashire look towards to win games is frequently unavailable  and,
from a club's point of view, that cannot be satisfactory.

Wasim's contract expires at the end of the  1996  season.  As  he
leaves  after  the  NatWest Trophy tie at the Oval next Wednesday
for the Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, and a Pakistan  half-tour  of
England  is  scheduled  for  1996, that leaves him with one whole
season to undertake, next year.

A matter of greater immediate concern to Michael Atherton is  the
form  of  Phil  Tufnell, who is ''on games'' again and returns to
the Middlesex side at Derby after his  recent  domestic  problems
and widely reported court appearance last week.

With a half-season break staggering  championship  fixtures  over
the next week or two, Tufnell has not enough time to bowl himself
into the England side against South  Africa  at  Lord's.  Only  a
fool,  however,  would discount his chances of playing before the
end of that series. Either a fool or the chairman of selectors.

(Extracted from a Michael Henderson article in the Times.)
<END> Contributed by Vicky (VIGNESWA@*umass.edu)