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Once more, the playing surface at Newlands is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons

One third of the ICC World Twenty20 matches, scheduled in Cape Town, are in danger of being hampered by rain as the venue has received more than 100 millimetres of rain in August

Stats highlights of the third Test between South Africa and India at Cape Town

Rahul Dravid laughed off suggestions of a tiff with Greg Chappell in Durban, and emphasised that his team were trying their very best to get back on track ahead of the Cape Town ODI on Sunday.

Andre Nel brushed off suggestions that a struggling Indian side would be fair game as the series resumes in the Western Cape

The pitch for the game looks bone-dry and has just a smattering of grass here and there, and though the locals expect it to be bouncy, it won't be anywhere near as fast as those they played on at Benoni and Kingsmead

The Indian management have decided to play it safe and have rested Munaf Patel, the fast bowler, for tomorrow's one-day international at Cape Town

Though the Durban defeat met with hysterical over-reaction back home Zaheer Khan remained quietly confident that India could turn things around

India had to make do with net sessions on a basketball court, upon which green-coloured mats had been thrown. There were the usual catching and fielding drills too, though Munaf Patel missed out with a sore left ankle.

Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town have been chosen as the three venues for the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Championships in September 2007

Following Graeme Smith's comments that Test pitches at home this season were "a lottery", the groundstaff at Cape Town have tried their best to provide a track more suited for batting

The Newlands groundsman, Christo Erasmus, has hit out at the South African management for leaving him as the scapegoat for the pitch he prepared for the first Test against Australia

England have been snoozing their way through the Test series with South Africa so far, and soon they will be made to pay, says Andrew Miller

The third Test of the series starts at Newlands in Cape Town on January 2, just three days after the second Test went down to the wire - and the darkness - at Durban

MA Atherton: no prospect of a repeat of his epic unbeaten 185 at Johannesburg in 1995-96 © Getty Images It was a given at some stage of the series

Monde Zondeki will play for Western Province Boland next season, after announcing his move from the Warriors, the Port Elizabeth based franchise

Phil Simmons dismissed suggestions that Zimbabwe's Test status should be reviewed, but the pressure is growing for the ICC to step in

Zimbabwe batted better than they had on that terrible first day, but they still proved unequal to the task and succumbed to an embarrassing defeat inside two days at Newlands

Zimbabwe were routed for 54 in a little over a session on the opening day of the first Test at Newlands, nine runs short of their previous-lowest score in Tests

It is time for the ICC to step in for the sake of the game in Zimbabwe