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The trophy of the inaugural Asian Test Championship, sponsored by Coca-Cola, will reach the capital today from Bombay. The crystal trophy, with gold ornamentation, has been designed by Creative Awards, a Bombay based designing firm.

The winners of the final will be richer by 1,00,000 US dollars while the runners-up will receive 60,000 dollars. India, the other team to have participated in the three-nation championship, have already been awarded with 20,000 dollars.

Meanwhile, the crests for the man of the final and man of the series, reached the capital yesterday.

The man-of-the-final will receive 5,000 dollars. The amount will be doubled for the man-of-the-series.

Big British Bloomer

British Airways has awarded legendary England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott the much wonted knighthood. The national airlines of United Kingdom has arranged a reception for Boycott, who is now in the capital as one of the six member commentary team of Star Sports, at a city hotel tomorrow evening.

Boycott was titled ``Sir'' in the invitation card. However, it is common knowledge that the British sovereign never bestowed the title upon him.

What a mistake by his native airlines!

Double milestones for the ``I''s

Apart from the Wasim Akram hattrick, two Pakistan batsmen Ijaz Ahmed and Inzamamul Huq also achieved personal milestones by hammering their first double hundreds yesterday.

Ijaz, who was unbeaten on 118 at stumps of the second day's play on Saturday, went onto score 211 before being caught behind of Upul Chandana. Meanwhile, Inzamam, who resumed on an overnight score of 77, remained unbeaten on exactly 200 when Pakistan were all out for 594.

On his way to 211, Ijaz crossed three-thousand runs in his 54th Test match and also bettered his previous highest score of 155 against Australia in Peshawar last September. On the other hand, Inzamam also crossed his previous highest score of 177, made against West Indies in Rawalpindi last season.

With their respective double hundreds, Ijaz and Inzamam became the 25th and 26th batsmen for Pakistan to score two hundred runs in a Test innings.

The present Pakistan coach and former middle order batsman Javed Miandad leads the list with six double centuries in Test cricket, followed by Zaheer Abbas who slammed four.

Legendary right hand batsman Hanif Mohammad, the only Pakistan to have scored a triple century (337), and his son Shoaib Mohammad have scored two double hundreds each.

A dilemmatic debut

A six-wicket haul on debut should be more than good enough a start for a leg spinner. But does Sri Lankan leggie Upul Chandana agree?

No, he doesn't!

The lanky 27-year old islander, who is playing his first Test, captured six wickets in the first innings of his Test career conceding 179 runs in 47.4 overs. But that was not good enough to bring back smile on his face at the end of the day as Sri Lanka were reeling at nine for three at stumps, needing another 354 runs to avoid an innings defeat.

`` Obviously I should have been proud of my performance. But what has happened at the end of the day?'' said a frustrated Chandana before leaving the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

Saqlain changing his line

Pakistan off spinner Saqlain Mushtaq seems to be more serious with his batting these days after having already proved himself to be one of the best off spinners in the cricketing arena

The Lahore-based right hander was knocking the ball when the other members of his team went for lunch yesterday. Saqlain continued his solemn practice throughout the 30 minutes lunch break as if his team urgently expected century from the 23-year old man. However, Saqlain would eventually score only four runs before being run out.

It may be mentioned that, Saqlain shares the Test record of 313 runs for the eighth wicket along with his skipper Wasim Akram. Their partnership came against Zimbabwe in Shekhupura in October 1996. Saqlain contributed a personal best of 79 runs to the joint effort while Wasim Akram was undefeated on 257.