The name Mike Young might not strike an instant chord with cricket fans, but the American baseball coach is helping to mastermind Australia's World Cup defence.

Young is working with Ricky Ponting's squad as their throwing and fielding consultant and his inclusion in the touring party is an example of Australia's willingness to look beyond cricket in a bid to improve.

"I just say to the players I'm not here to tell them how to play cricket," he said on Friday.

"I am here to throw up alternatives, other options for them to think about coming from a perspective away from the way things have always been done."

Young's influence can be seen in relay throws from the deep and players tracking each other to the boundary, both moves designed to ensure the ball is returned as quickly as possible.

"We have set-plays in the field that we will be using in the coming month and they will get players out," he said.

"We are also working on how the players actually throw the ball to keep it down as flat as possible and developing the principle that you field with your feet not your hands."

"By that I mean the way you get into position to field the ball, working on angles to cut the ball off. The phrase is 'angles, balance, see your target. We are looking to field aggressively, we are trying for run-outs and that excites me."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has made a last-ditch appeal to the International Cricket Council to move his country's World Cup game against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Monday.

England were forced to forfeit their game against Zimbabwe last week after refusing to play in Harare due to security concerns.

But Howard, who has taken a hard line against the political regime in Zimbabwe, urged the ICC to switch Australia's game to Kenya or South Africa.

"I've never argued that the Australian team should unilaterally pull out if it didn't want to," Howard said.

"I haven't put that kind of moral pressure on the Australian team.

"My argument has been that the International Cricket Council should have listened to the views of the British and New Zealand governments and shifted all of the games from Zimbabwe to either Kenya or South Africa."

Sri Lanka might be riding high in the Group B, but captain Sanath Jayasuriya is leaving nothing to chance when his in-form team take on Kenya on Monday.

The sub-continent side have wasted no time beginning practice since arriving in Kenya amid tightened security on Thursday.

Sri Lanka have made a great start to the World Cup with wins over New Zealand, Bangladesh and Canada to leave them top of their pool with 12 points.

But remembering the fate of the West Indies in 1996, Jayasuriya is being careful not to become complacent against cricketing minnows Kenya.

He said: "You can't take anything for granted, it's a funny game and you just can never tell how it's going to be like so we have to be at our best all the time."

South Africa will name three non-white players in their team to take on Bangladesh on Saturday as a result of an understanding between the country's cricket board and its government.

There has been pressure on the United Cricket Board of South Africa to reinstate race quotas, scrapped just four months ago at provincial level.

Last year, UCB president Percy Sonn overruled the selectors' XI for the third Test against Australia in Sydney, and black all-rounder Justin Ontong replaced Jacques Rudolph as a result.

And after government pressure, the UCB agreed to select five "players of colour" in the 15-man World Cup squad.

However, chief of selectors Omar Henry insisted the side is being rotated for other reasons.

"When we selected the 15 the objective was to qualify for the second round, and to win it, and that the best way to do that would be to make use of all of the players" Henry said.

Zimbabwe fast bowler Henry Olonga has been thrown out of his domestic cricket club following his political protest at the World Cup. He has had his membership of Takashinga Cricket Club withdrawn after wearing a black armband during the match against Namibia on 10 February.

The club claimed Olonga "brought the game of cricket and the club into disrepute" through his protest.

Olonga was showing his opposition to the regime of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe. He and fellow protester Andy Flower described recent events in Zimbabwe had caused "the death of democracy in our beloved country".

A statement from the Takashinga club read: "The disciplinary committee has decided that Henry Olonga's membership be withdrawn.

"By wearing the black armband, Henry has not only brought the game of cricket and the club into disrepute. He has also compromised one of the club's major objectives of embracing the ethical and professional demands of the game of cricket."

New Zealand's Chris Cairns will get another chance to re-establish himself as a genuine allrounder after his unhappy return to bowling at the World Cup.

Cairns had not bowled in a one-day international for almost a year after suffering a series of injuries, but turned his arm over in New Zealand's second pool game against West Indies.

His long-awaited come back was short-lived, however, as he conceded 21 runs from his only over, prompting Kiwi captain Stephen Fleming to banish him back to the field.

However, Fleming told on Friday he was planning to give Cairns another chance in New Zealand's next two games against Bangladesh and Canada in the hope he could rediscover his form in time for the bigger matches ahead.

"Chris will definitely bowl in the next two games," Fleming said. "We always targeted these matches as a window for him to do some bowling so yes, he'll definitely bowl."

India's out-of-form World Cup captain Sourav Ganguly was bombarded with wet tennis balls in a car park on Friday in an attempt to help him cope with the extra bounce of South African pitches.

While his team mates trained in the nets at the Pietermaritzburg Oval, the left-hander was busy ducking, pulling and cutting on a cement surface before Sunday's Group A clash against Namibia.

Ganguly was dropped from opener to number four for Wednesday's victory over Zimbabwe.

Fast bowler Javagal Srinath said the team is beginning to come to grips with South African conditions.

"In the past two months we have played in extreme conditions. Either they were completely flat pitches in India or bouncing and seaming conditions in New Zealand," he said.

New Zealand Cricket is to investigate an incident outside a Durban nightclub in which star all-rounder Chris Cairns was injured when members of the team were caught up in a drunken melee.

Cairns and fellow player Brendon McCullum were Saturday sporting facial cuts and abrasions from the late-night fracas after several members of the Black Caps were asked to leave the Tiger, Tiger nightclub.

Cairns was hit without warning on the back of the head and collapsed on the pavement while some of the players were abused by a crowd still simmering with resentment at the Kiwis' victory over South Africa last Sunday.

New Zealand Cricket will take several days to probe the fracas and the player behaviour which preceded it.

Team manager Jeff Crowe refused to lodge a formal police report. "The incident happened outside the nightclub," a statement from New Zealand Cricket (NZC) quoted Crowe as saying.

"Cairns had been asked to leave by bar staff after reported loud behaviour by several members of the team. I have been advised by the police that the incident was unprovoked and was not related to any issue between Cairns and the person who assaulted him."