Cricket: Bishop denies discord

Bishop denies discord

The West Indian fast bowler Ian Bishop has denied that there are morale problems among the West Indies cricket team in the wake of Brian Lara's withdrawal from their tour of Australia. "There is no disharmony as far as I'm concerned," Bishop said in Sydney yesterday. "What is written in the papers . . . we just have to try and prove it's wrong. Every time we play a game it's the ideal time to forget about the discord that's going on. We would like to hope that with the absence of some people, the other guys will grow stronger." Meanwhile in Tasmania, Ricky Ponting enhanced his claim for Test selection by Australia with an unbeaten century as Tasmania dominated the second day of the four-day match against Sri Lanka, in Launceston. Ponting, watched by the Australian Test selector Jim Higgs, scored an unbeaten 131 before his side declared their first innings on 335 for four. The tourists were 229 for five in reply at stumps after Chandika Hathurusinghe had hammered 73 and the captain Arjuna Ranatunga had made 69 not out off 79 balls.