France find their va-va-voom

France recorded a record-equalling seventh consecutive international win at Thoiry, near Paris, on June 7-8, as Belgium were routed by seven wickets and 142 runs on consecutive days. It is only the second time that France have enjoyed a double-win weekend against their European rivals since the annual encounters between the two were revived in 1991 after 77 years.

The victories continued a remarkable run of ODI success for France this season. In early April, they inflicted three heavy defeats on Morocco in Tangiers, before overwhelming Luxembourg by 121 runs in a rain-shortened game.

In the opening fixture of the weekend, France's hero was Valentin Brumant, their 41-year-old fast bowler from Guadeloupe, who took 1 for 19 in eight overs as a swashbuckling Belgian batting line-up was restricted to 200 for 9 in their 50 overs. At the other end of the experience scale, Abdul Rehman made an exciting debut with 2 for 25.

France whistled through their overs in under three hours, a noteworthy performance in scorching heat of over 30°C, and they continued to singe the Belgians when it was their turn to bat. Peter Linton and Javed Ijaz smacked 16 from the first over, before Javed (72*) and his captain Shabir (77) added 153 in 20 overs to demolish Belgium's target with exactly 20 overs to spare.

King Albert of Belgium won't have regretted opting for the Roland Garros stadium in Paris rather than the Thoiry cricket ground. His attentions on Sunday morning were centred on the first-ever all-Belgian ladies' tennis final. And Justine Hénin-Hardenne gave her Flemish compatriot Kim Clijsters the sort of spanking that Linton (87) and Javed (31) were dishing out to the Belgian bowlers, who were smashed for 104 inside 14 overs. France's eventual total of 260 was far too good for Belgium, who limped to 118 in 33.4 overs.

Belgium's captain, Wasiq, acknowledged that this was the most professional French side he had faced in over a decade. Belgium will need to tighten up on fitness and discipline if they are to qualify for next year's European Championships at the ECC Trophy in Vienna in August. The new-look French, meanwhile, can face the future with increasing confidence.

The Italian Championship has reached the halfway mark, but already there is little left to play for. The unexpectedly dominant Gallicano Monti Prenestini have swept all before them, winning all seven of their matches and dropping just four points out of a maximum 140 in the process.

Gallicano is a small medieval town 40km east of Rome, and 500 metres above sea-level in the heart of the Prenestine Mountains. The team has modelled itself very much on the mighty Pianoro, the defending champions and winners of seven of the last nine titles.

Although football dominates Italian sport, minority games such as cricket clearly find it easier to emerge in small towns, where local authorities are much happier to give space and help to less-publicised events. With this in mind, Gallicano's dynamic president, Gianni Moscatellini, has not only put together a competitive team in the space of two seasons but, even more importantly, has built a ground which will be completed next September and will be unrivalled throughout Italy.

The remainder of the clubs in the league have suffered a mixed season. Pianoro and Trentino were in the hunt early on, but Gallicano trounced them both and they lost their way completely. The gap at the top between Gallicano (136 points) and second-placed Pianoro (94) is greater than that between Pianoro and the bottom team (Murri, who are eighth and last with 55). It has been a year of total domination.

NAMIBIA: Continuing the development process
Tony Munro

Namibia are hoping to maintain their development by inviting ICC full members to play them, after not being invited back to play in the Standard Bank League, South Africa's premier domestic one-day competition. Laurie Pieters, the president of the Namibia Cricket Board (NCB), said talks were presently taking place with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, and they were keen to court other countries as well.

According to Pieters, Namibia's exclusion from the SBL stemmed from the United Cricket Board of South Africa's determination to "restructure their cricket" to produce a consistently higher level of play. There is understood to be a belief among South African policymakers that too many domestic teams reduce the exposure of potential Test players to an acceptable level of competitive cricket.

Namibia, a "foreign" side which lost all of their five matches by comprehensive margins, were always going to be at risk. Typically for an associate-member country, Namibia's strengths were in their fielding and bowling - only once, in the last match against Gauteng, did their opponents score at more than five an over.

Bjorn Kotze, who took two wickets against Pakistan during the World Cup, finished the South African season with 13 wickets at 13.61, and picked up a wicket every 18 balls. And Lennie Louw, now 43, nabbed 11 wickets at a fraction over three runs per over. The batting, sadly, was less successful. Namibia twice failed to reach 100, and Danie Kuelder's 51 against Free State was their only half-century in the five matches.

Pieters was disappointed that Namibia would no longer be taking part in the Standard Bank League, but remained upbeat. "We are still part of the ICC's High Performance Programme, which has some very exciting proposals including the Intercontinental Cup." There is still a possibility that Namibia could compete in South Africa's second-division competition, the UCB Bowl.

The future does seem bright for Namibia. Last week their Under-17s won an ICC-sponsored regional tournament, remaining undefeated against Botswana, Lesotho, Zambia and Malawi.