New Zealand asked the sport’s governing body on Saturday to switch their World Cup Group B match against Kenya from Nairobi to South Africa.

“The New Zealand board have reconfirmed their decision made on January 31, which is not to allow the New Zealand team to travel to Nairobi for the match on February 21,” New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Martin Snedden told Reuters by telephone on Saturday.

“The team won’t go to Nairobi, we’ve advised the ICC (International Cricket Council) of this and we’ve confirmed that we are willing to play the game at an alternative venue in South Africa — at whatever date the ICC might determine.”

“This movie is a thing of beauty, with the substance to match its style.”

Hollywood — and America’s — fascination with all things Asian continues in Edward Zwick’s “The Last Samurai,” a movie that successfully merges a Western with a samurai movie. Zwick triumphantly pulls off what sounds like the height of arrogance: a Yank directing a samurai movie and, worse, Tom Cruise playing the title role. Hewing close to historical accuracy, though, the film does a reasonable job of situating Cruise, playing an Indian fighter and Civil War veteran, in Japan during the 1876-77 Samurai Revolt to catch the final moments of samurai culture and its spirit of Bushido.

New Zealand film director Peter Jackson, tipped to win an Oscar for his The Lord Of The Rings epic, said recently that he would like to make The Hobbit prequel to the trilogy and work with some of the same actors again.

Jackson said he was sad but also relieved that the mammoth project he has worked on for seven years was over. “I’m glad there’s not a fourth Lord of the Rings film next year,” he said. “I feel very tired and exhausted.” “I’ve been working very hard this year. It was the hardest year of the whole seven really,” he said, adding that the last part had twice as many computer-generated shots as the second, The Two Towers, which won an Oscar for digital effects. “It’s my favourite because it has a stronger emotional depth than the other two films it has a sense of closure,” he said.

With performances falling far short of their ambition, Bangladesh find themselves in a cricketing no man’s land as they approach their second consecutive World Cup.

Their dismal record of losing all but one of their 17 tests, many of them innings defeats inside three days, and three wins from 61 one-dayers means their superior opponents regard them as mere points in the bank.

A South African cricket official’s remarks at last year’s Champions Trophy perhaps reflects the attitude of big teams towards the 10th and newest entrant to the test club in 2000, with critics saying their arrival was hasty and due to board- room politics.

An unconvincing net session by injured Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar increased speculation he will miss his side’s opening World Cup match against Australia at The Wanderers on Tuesday.

Anwar, who suffered a severely bruised left elbow when he was hit by a delivery from team mate Shoaib Akhtar last week, batted briefly against a bowling machine on Monday.

He was seen flexing his arm afterwards. Earlier he took part in a fielding drill but did not throw the ball over-arm.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming says his team’s defeat by Sri Lanka might force a change of mind about boycotting their World Cup Group B match in Kenya.

Fleming said the New Zealand players were still confident their cricket board would make the right decision and would not try to influence them either way, even if it cost the team a place in the next stage of the tournament.

“The situation with Kenya is that the process is still underway,” Fleming said after his team’s 47-run loss on Monday.

The ICC have promised to give a written response tomorrow to the ECB over their request to move England’s World Cup opener from Zimbabwe.

ECB chief executive Tim Lamb said in a press conference that talks had been held with ICC officials on Monday evening.

The ECB and the England players want Thursday’s game in Harare moved from Zimbabwe following death threats made by a group called the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe.

But research by Deputy National Commissioner of South African Police Andre Pruis into the death-threat letter concluded that the group was unlikely to exist and that it was most probably the work of a single individual.

KIMBERLEY - Having been beaten by Australia in the opening game, and to add insult to injury, being considered ‘a topsy turvy team, which is quite beatable on its off-day’ by Namibian coach Douglas Brown, Pakistan enter the De Beers Oval Sunday to put some points on the table and improve their net run rate.

In a press conference here, skipper Waqar Younis acknowledged that motivating the boys against the minnows was important. “This is a World Cup game; so there is no question of any complacency”.

To another question, he said that he would not ask his fast bowlers to relent simply because of the inexperience of the Namibians.

HARARE (Reuters) - Opener Craig Wishart has hit a commanding 172 not out to set up Zimbabwe’s 86-run victory over Namibia in a rain-curtailed World Cup Group A match.

Although the match started on time after months of controversy about the six World Cup games scheduled to take place in strife-torn Zimbabwe, rain halted play for the second time at 2:10 p.m. British time and, with no chance of a resumption, the game was abandoned.

Facing a revised victory target of 325 in 46 overs, Namibia slipped from a flying start to 104 for five when rain intervened after 25.1 overs, well behind on the Duckworth/Lewis scoring method for interrupted matches.

New Zealand’s World Cup hopes were left in tatters as they went down by 47 runs in their opening Pool B game against Sri Lanka at Goodyear Park here today.

The Black Caps now face a major uphill battle to qualify for the Super Sixes, especially after refusing to honour their fixture against Kenya in Nairobi and will have to win their next two big games against the West Indies and South Africa respectively to be sure of a place in the next round of the tournament.