Selection committee chairman Chandu Borde has praised the Indiancricket team’s eight wicket win over Zimbabwe in the Bulawayo Test onSunday, saying it was an “exciting performance” and the team can onlyget better from now on

Staff and Agencies13-Jun-2001* Indian team can only get better from now on: BordeSelection committee chairman Chandu Borde has praised the Indiancricket team’s eight wicket win over Zimbabwe in the Bulawayo Test onSunday, saying it was an “exciting performance” and the team can onlyget better from now on. Speaking to PTI over the phone from Pune onTuesday, Borde said the team was combining well and “this is a verygood sign for the future of Indian cricket.”The way our boys performed in the first Test suggests that the teamcan only get better from now on and I personally feel that this tourwill be a stepping stone for the team to win many more Tests abroad inthe near future,” Borde added.”I think the batting has settled down nicely but I am worried aboutthe two left arm seamers Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan. They shouldlearn not to run on the danger zone during their follow-through andlearn it real fast,” Borde said. “Nehra was stopped from bowling inthe second innings while Zaheer was warned by the umpires and the boyshave to learn quickly as both can turn out to be match winners ontheir day,” the former Indian captain said.* Zimbabwe coach blames players’ injuries for defeatZimbabwe coach Carl Rackemann has blamed his side’s eight-wicketdefeat by India in the first cricket Test in Bulawayo on injuries tokey players, captain Heath Streak and Henry Olonga.”We lost because of the injury to Henry Olonga and Heath Streak. Whenyou have an injury to any of your bowlers, it is a big setback.Otherwise there is nothing wrong with the players. The team has anucleus of very good and experienced players,” the coach said.Rackemann said with the loss of the two bowlers, who were injuredbefore the start of India’s second innings, all hopes were lost. Buthe said the performance of Brighton Watambwa, playing in only histhird Test, gave them the confidence of winning the second match andforcing a draw in the two match series.”The young man who has just started his career took over the baton andspearheaded the attack. The manner in which he did the job was good,”he said. Rackemann hoped their performance would be a lot better inthe second Test in Harare which starts on Friday. Streak is expectedto recover in time but Olonga has been ruled out of the Test.* Shiv Sunder Das offered executive post in SAILShiv Sunder Das, whose sterling performance helped India break the 15-year-old jinx of not being able to win a Test match outside the subcontinent, has been offered an executive post in the Steel Authorityof India Limited (SAIL) by the Indian Steel Minister Braja KishoreTripathy.Praising Das for his determination to rise as a great player, theMinister said in a press statement, “Das has brought laurels to theentire nation and established himself as an eminent player.”The stocky opener from Orissa had hit an unbeaten 82 in the secondinnings besides contributing a cameo knock of 30 in the first andtaking three catches in the match to help India register acomprehensive eight-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the first of the twoTests against hosts Zimbabwe.* Missing Prabhakar may be declared as POAs tainted former India all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar, wanted forallegedly misappropriating crores of rupees of public money, remainselusive even more than three weeks after the issuance of non-bailablewarrants, the Uttaranchal Police is contemplating approaching thecourt to declare him a ‘proclaimed offender’ (PO).The efforts of the Uttaranchal Police to arrest Prabhakar have notyielded results. Neither has he surrendered before the court, whichissued the NBWs on May 18. This has left the police with no option,but to approach the Haldwani court in Nainital to declare him a PO.”We have tried to locate him in Delhi and Rajasthan. But hiswhereabouts are not known. The police of the two states have told usthat he was not present in the area under their jurisdiction. We areleft with no choice but to ask the court to proclaim him an offenderand order attachment of his property,” state Director General ofPolice AK Sharan said on phone from Dehra Dun on Tuesday.Prabhakar has been missing ever since the NBWs were issued and theUttaranchal police went on his hot trail. When the Uttaranchal policesent its team to Delhi to arrest him, Prabhakar had reportedly lefthis residence for Jaipur to participate in a ‘seminar’. Delhi Police,which was requested by the Uttaranchal police for execution of theNBWs, also confirmed that the cricketer was not in the capital.