All posts by csb10.top

IPL chairman Lalit Modi has said the BCCI never asked the ICC to create a window for both the IPL and the Champions League. “We have never propagated that we should be part of the Future Tours Programme [FTP] for the IPL or the Champions League because I think there is a natural window for these two events,” he said in London. “We never asked for one and we are never going to ask for one.”His statement comes in the wake of ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat’s contradiction to Modi’s earlier claims that the Champions League had been slotted into the FTP.Modi clarified his original statement which was made on the IPL website recently, saying “there was a miscommunication as far as I’m concerned.” He also said the BCCI had worked with the ICC to slot the Champions League this year and all Test-playing nations were part of that solution in terms of creating space for the tournament.Happy at the success of the second edition of the IPL, which had to be moved at the last minute to South Africa, Modi said he was confident that various members of the ICC would sit together to find space for the events like the IPL and Champions League, which already have strong support the players and their unions. “Going forward we will be working along with members and work out a solution in the new FTP which is in discussion,” he said.Asked if the mushrooming of various Twenty20 leagues – the P20 is slated to take off in 2010 in the UK – may prove to be an overkill of the format, Modi strongly denied such claims. Instead he felt Twenty20 was a vehicle that would bring more crowds to the other two forms of the cricket. “We just finished the review of IPL in South Africa and have found that 70% of the people who watched IPL this year [in South Africa] never watched any form of cricket before. That’s an astonishing figure. For a tournament like the IPL to be able to garner new audiences is critical for the growth of cricket. If we are able to get people to Twenty20 we are only enlarging the pie: you will see them go and watch one-day and Test cricket.”Modi was enthusiastic about exploring foreign venues for IPL games in the future, and did not rule out England as one of the potential venues. “Currently we haven’t examined the UK yet. We just had a tremendous success in our first season outside of India,” he said. “This actually now opens a whole new area for us and we are now going to be examining games overseas. Where and when will be played is still matter to be debated and studied. The cricketing calendar in England is full so that would have to be taken into account.”

New Zealand Cricket has expressed disappointment over Richard Hadlee’s apparent move to the unsanctioned American Premier League. Hadlee’s appointment as the APL’s executive consultant came in the same week former England internationals Adam Hollioake and Graeme Hick signed to play in the tournament, according to the .As exclusively revealed by Cricinfo last month, New York entrepreneur Jay Mir is actively recruiting past and present players for a six-team Twenty20 league to be played at the 10,000-seat home of minor league baseball team, the Staten Island Yankees, in October. John Emburey and Inzamam-ul-Haq are among the higher-profile names to have linked with the APL, and more players, many from the ICL’s ranks, are expected to sign in the coming weeks.NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan said he was disappointed at Hadlee’s reported move to the APL. “It’s regrettable he’s aligned with an unsanctioned and unofficial circuit,” Vaughan told the in New Zealand. “It’s certainly not preferrable but he’s got his life to lead.”

Kane Williamson has capped off his rapid rise in New Zealand’s domestic cricket by being named Northern Districts’ cricketer of the year for 2008-09. Williamson, 18, won the prize ahead of his more experienced colleagues after an excellent season in the four-day and 50-over formats.Williamson was his side’s leading run scorer in the State Championship with 707 runs at 54.38 and his 320 runs at 45.71 helped Northern Districts win the State Shield. His spin also played a key part in their victory in the final, when his ten overs for 23 helped tie down Otago.The batsman Johann Myburgh won the equivalent title at Cantebury, where he finished the season with 739 State Championship runs at 61.58. Myburgh, who was born in South Africa, qualifies to play for New Zealand in September next year.Martin Guptill was awarded the cricketer of the year title at Auckland, finishing off a sensational year in which he made his one-day international and Test debuts for New Zealand. It was a strong turnaround after he suffered a dislocated knee at the start of the season.

Pakistan have left out Shoaib Akhtar from the 16-man squad for the tour of Bangladesh, which starts with a Twenty20 international on March 10. The selectors have included three uncapped players to have impressed on the domestic circuit this season – the opener Ahmed Shehzad, legspinner Yasir Shah and fast bowler Mohammad Aamer.Last month Shoaib had targeted the Bangladesh tour, saying he did not require surgery on a troublesome knee. Abdul Qadir, Pakistan’s chief selector, told reporters in Lahore that he had asked Shoaib to play in a domestic first-class last month, “but somehow he didn’t play in the match to prove his fitness.””He told me that now he didn’t require operation on his knee, but the main thing is he can only comeback to international cricket if he proves his fitness by playing in domestic matches,” Qadir said.In 2009 so far, Shoaib has played two one-dayers against Sri Lanka, conceding 88 runs in 13 overs for one wicket, which prompted his exclusion from the series decider. Since February 2006, he has played just three Tests and 11 ODIs.Shehzad, a part of the Under-19 squad for the World Cup in Malaysia last year, was called up to the Pakistan Test squad recently but did not get a game. Aamer, Shehzad’s U-19 team-mate, is a promising young talent who has been singled out for praise by former captain Wasim Akram. Akram had earmarked Aamer as a future talent during a fast bowlers’ camp in May 2007. Aamer’s 55 wickets at 15.05 from nine Quaid-e-Azam Trophy matches have earned him his first international call-up. Yasir, 22, was a key figure in helping North-West Frontier Province win this season’s RBS Pentangular Cup even though he has not featured heavily in the four-day format.The squad includes Shahid Afridi and Iftikhar Anjum, who was left out for the two Tests against Sri Lanka, as well as Sarfraz Ahmed, named as a backup wicketkeeper to Kamran Akmal. The opener Nasir Jamshed, who last played in the Asia Cup in Pakistan last year, has also been recalled.Yasir Hameed was among the nine reserves named for the tour.Pakistan squad: Younis Khan (capt), Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shahzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal (wk), Fawad Alam, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Aamer, Yasir Arafat, Yasir Shah, Iftikhar Anjum, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk).

Kevin Pietersen is likely to captain Bangalore Royal Challengers for the first three weeks of this IPL season for which he is available. Pietersen will then hand over the leadership to Rahul Dravid or Mark Boucher, a team source said.”This scenario is a very strong possibility but a final decision is yet to be taken,” the source said. “Shane Warne was denied the captaincy in Australia, and look what he did in the IPL last year (Warne’s Rajasthan Royals won the tournament). We expect KP will have a point to prove too with regards to captaincy, and that will only benefit the team.”Vijay Mallya, the team’s owner, had hinted at a change of captaincy after the player auction in Goa last week when he bought Pietersen for a record US$ 1.55 million. “The captaincy options are open,” Mallya said. “The team management will take a decision on it.”Dravid, the former India captain, had led the Royal Challengers last year when the team finished seventh out of eight — they were also tagged as a Test XI, including the likes of Jacques Kallis, and Wasim Jaffer.This time, after Pietersen leaves for the home series against West Indies starting May 6, the team will be led by Dravid, if he is available, or Boucher. Dravid’s wife is expecting their second child in the first week of May, and franchise officials are unsure whether he will be available during that period. “After Pietersen and Dravid, Boucher has been identified as a strong captaincy option,” the source said. This year’s IPL will run from April 10-May 24 but officials are yet to release the final schedule.Meanwhile, Ray Jennings, the Bangalore coach, feels that Pietersen would succeed as captain of his team even if it is for the short-term. Pietersen had a very short stint as England captain last year but resigned just before the ongoing tour of West Indies. “Kevin may work really well as captain for a short period,” Jennings told the . “A small amount of time means a limited amount of time for things to go wrong. Captains often have that honeymoon period anyway.”We bought Kevin to improve our whole profile, which goes beyond cricket. Kevin has great, eye-catching cricketing skills. He is also a very marketable guy. He is a product who can go across India and he might be an ideal captain over four weeks or so.”

Kevin Pietersen has said he did not stay up all night in Jamaica, where he was on tour with the England side, awaiting the results of the IPL auction on February 6. Pietersen emerged the big winner along with team-mate Andrew Flintoff at the event in Goa, earning annual contracts worth US$1.55 million each, making them the highest-earning players in the league. However, Pietersen said he was wary of flaunting around his dollars while his friends were coping with the global economic crisis.”It’s an unbelievable amount of money,” Pietersen told . “But I didn’t stay up all night waiting for the results of the auction. I am in the Caribbean in the middle of an important Test series against the West Indies and preparation and focus for that is the most important thing.”I was honoured when I heard the news that I was one of the most highly-rated players in the world. But I can’t let things like this affect my focus,” he said. “There has been no banter in the dressing room as to how much money we went for. There is a huge credit crunch in England and some of my mates have been made redundant. I have friends who have lost their jobs, so it’s not the time to start shaking your money around.”While Pietersen was bought by Bangalore Royal Challengers, Flintoff was purchased for the same sum by Chennai Super Kings – who had paid US$1.5m for Mahendra Singh Dhoni last year. Flintoff, too, was happy with the way things had panned out. “We would not have had any problem with different prices, but I guess being the same might stop a few of the other lads taking the mick. I’m very pleased. I went in at $950,000 so to get that much it’s unbelievable really, it has not quite sunk in, I guess. I regard it as a massive bonus.”My team includes guys like my friend Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan], Matthew Hayden and Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain. So it’s a very exciting team,” he said. “But I’m here in Jamaica playing a Test match. My mind is full of that and the IPL is not for another six weeks. I just regard it as a massive bonus.”Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah were the other players in the touring party to bag contracts – both for the Delhi Daredevils. “I didn’t make any plans to stay up with the Test match in progress, but I must admit I got a text message telling me what had happened. I slept easily after that!” Collingwood said. “I’m absolutely delighted at the price tag on my head. The reserve price was $250,000 so to get a bit more than that is a really nice feeling.”There was some cheer in the opposition camp as well, with West Indian fast bowlers Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards being lapped up at the auction, although Ramnaresh Sarwan and Daren Powell were unsold. Edwards got news of his $150,000 contract with the Deccan Chargers on his 27th birthday.”It feels great. It was a good birthday gift,” he told the Nation. Playing in the IPL will give me the chance to have a new experience and play alongside different players and in different conditions,” he said. “It is good to see people recognising your talent and requiring your services.”Edwards was a surprise pick, given he played only three Twenty20 games for Barbados, and was not part of the Stanford Superstars squad that won the Stanford 20/20 for 20 against England last year.”I always felt I was good enough to play Twenty20 cricket. This is good for me personally and good for my cricket career,” he said. “At present, however, I am concentrating on West Indies cricket and looking to help the team beat England. This series is crucial to us and we want to win and more importantly win at home.”

Andrew Strauss expects Kevin Pietersen, who he succeeded as the England captain, to bounce back on the tour of the West Indies after the batsman’s resignation as the team’s leader. Pietersen stood down on the same day the coach Peter Moores was sacked and Strauss is in the process of remoulding the squad ahead of their departure for the Caribbean on Wednesday.”I’ve spoken to Kevin a few times and I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by his attitude,” Strauss told BBC Sportsweek. “I have no doubt that he will go to the West Indies and get millions of runs.”It is easy to use the word legend, but I think he will become a legend of the game. People like that, when their backs are against the wall, they invariably go out and perform. Kevin is clearly passionate about playing cricket for England for a long period of time.”Strauss felt the team was not divided following the upheaval. “I’ve been very reassured by the chaps that we have not been badly affected as a group and any divisions the press made out were in the side are not evident,” he said. “The players are excited about going to West Indies, which is a great tour. No-one likes reading these things in the press and a tour is a great way to bring people closer together.”Strauss’ job has been made tougher by the fact that the team does not have a head coach. “It’s been very busy,” he said. “Everything is being thrust firmly at my door to get everything ready for the tour, but at the same time it’s a fantastic position to be in as I’ve got a blank canvas to work with and it gives me an opportunity to put things in place.”Strauss, who previously served in the top job when Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff were out injured, said he was looking forward to leading England in this year’s Ashes, a job he was overlooked for in 2006-07 when Flintoff returned. “I’ve been given the opportunity to captain England and I’m fairly hopeful it is going to be a long-term appointment,” he said. “That’s certainly the indication I’ve been given from the ECB and that’s the way I’m looking at it. At the moment I think the England team could do with a bit of stability at the top.”Strauss also sees himself playing some role in the selection of the new coach. “I’d be very surprised if I don’t have an input into which the next coach is going to be,” he said. “I don’t think the captain should choose the coach, but he should have some say.”

Mumbai v Himachal Pradesh in Ahmedabad
In the build-up to this quarter-final, there was confusion abound in Mumbai about whether Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan would be available for this match. A more important question is, whether Mumbai will need them for Himachal Pradesh? Mumbai have by a long margin been the best team in the Super League, and should go in as overwhelming favourites in this match. As it turns out, Tendulkar and Zaheer won’t be playing the game, and should be available from the semi-final onwards.Mumbai are the only team to have won five outright games in the Super League, and go into the knockouts high on confidence. They have won three consecutive matches – their nine-wicket win against Punjab being the most recent – and their batsmen featured prominently in each of those victories. The key players were Ajinkya Rahane, the highest run-scorer in the competition with 924 at an average of 84, and Wasim Jaffer, the second-highest run-scorer. Fast bowler Dhawal Kulkarni, who has 32 wickets including two five-wicket hauls in his last three innings, and offspinner Ramesh Powar backed up their team’s batting by bowling out the oppositions for low scores.Himachal will be relying heavily on new-ball bowlers Vikramjeet Malik, who has taken 33 wickets – including 13 in their 103-run win against Haryana, and Ashok Thakur, whose tally is 29. Sangram Singh, their opener, has averaged 63.2 in seven games, including back-to-back double-centuries against Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. However, unlike Mumbai, Himachal have lost one game to Goa but their comprehensive innings victory against Madhya Pradesh in the semi-final will give them ample encouragement as they take on the tournament favourites.Gujarat v Uttar Pradesh in Vadodara
Featuring two Super League teams, this promises to be the closest of the quarter-finals. On form, Gujarat, who finished second in Group A of the Super League with four wins, will fancy their chances against Uttar Pradesh, who have won only one game but qualified for the quarter-finals by way of a first-innings lead in four drawn matches. But Gujarat will know that UP are an unpredictable side, and have big-match players in Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina.Barring one disappointment against Mumbai when they were bowled out for 44, Gujarat performed admirably in the tournament. Bhavik Thaker has been responsible for their impressive display, averaging 94.6 in ten innings with three centuries. The bowling, however, has been their main strength: offspinner Mohnish Parmar, whose 33 wickets are the most in the Super League, has been supported by pace bowlers Siddharth Trivedi, Amit Singh, and Ashraf Makda, who have taken 67 wickets between them. They helped Gujarat fight back from the humiliation against Mumbai and two subsequent draws to help bowl out sides for under 200 in their last three games.UP have only just managed to reach the knockout stage, after solitary win, against Maharashtra in Kanpur, and a demoralising innings defeat to Tamil Nadu. Kaif and Praveen didn’t play that match, and the difference they make to the side showed. Kaif, who has averaged 62.66 in seven innings, has found a solid partner in opener Tanmay Srivastava, their highest run-scorer this season. Piyush Chawla has been their best bowler with 23 wickets at 29.47, but they wouldn’t want repeats of the match against Railways in Delhi, where they couldn’t finish the match after having got into a strong position.

Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladesh wicketkeeper, is confident he will only improve with more exposure at the international level. Mushfiqur, who has largely been Bangladesh’s first-choice keeper after being picked ahead of Khaled Mashud for the 2007 World Cup, has missed a few catches behind the stumps on the current tour of South Africa but is confident his rhythm is improving.”It’s not so easy to keep in seaming and bouncy conditions but I’m not taking it as an excuse. There were a few regulation chances that I shouldn’t have missed,” Mushfiqur told the . Graeme Smith, who scored 157 in South Africa’s innings-and-129-run win in the first Test in Bloemfontein, was given a reprieve on 83 – he came down the track and was beaten by left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan, but Mushfiqur failed to collect the ball and effect the stumping.”It’s likely that top-class keepers miss sometimes. As a keeper I was initially nervous but now I am more comfortable and confident,” he said. “And I feel, day by day, my rhythm is getting better.”Mohammad Ashraful, the Bangladesh captain, highlighted the batsmen’s inability to cope with the bounce in South Africa as the reason behind the team’s poor showing after the first Test. “It’s really a new experience for all of us to play in South Africa,” Mushfiqur said. “It was really tough out there in the middle with the ball bouncing and swinging like anything. But the problem is that we rarely come across such deliveries on flat tracks at home.”Mushfiqur scored 89 in Bangladesh’s practice game before the Test, and offered some resistance with his 48 in the first innings in Bloemfontein. However, he is looking to improve his batting averages – it is below 20 in both Tests and ODIs. “I think someone’s average ultimately shows how good he is as a player. And my average in both one-day and Tests is hardly satisfying. I have a target to achieve an average of 40-plus in Test and 35 to 40 in one-day matches.”I’m trying to be consistent in my batting. I had a problem with gripping the bat and leaving the ball and worked on these in the Premier League [a domestic 50-over competition] and got the results. I scored few runs in the last few series but I have to play some long innings.”Mushfiqur’s nearest competitor for the keeper’s spot, Dhiman Ghosh, joined the ICL, but he said he cannot be complacent. “There is no scope to be relaxed in international cricket. It’s only a matter of time that an alternative will come if I fail to deliver,” he said. “I want to be an international figure and this is my ultimate goal. I am preparing myself to achieve the goal.” Mushfiqur had been dropped for a few ODI series this year, including the three-match series in Australia, but Ghosh’s signing with the unauthorised league saw him make a comeback for the recent home series against New Zealand.

Scorecard
In Peshawar, North West Frontier Province earned maximum points yet again to build a healthy lead at the top of the table after two games. After NWFP’s last-wicket pair ensured a 25-run first-innings lead – they began the day trailing by six, Federal Areas lasted only 33.5 overs in their second. Rafatullah Mohmand then scored a 60-ball 52 to seal the win with a day to spare.Wicketkeeper Zulfiqar Jan pushed from 36 to 60, and No. 11 Junaid Khan remained unbeaten on 10, to gain a 25-run first-innings lead. Jan was bowled by Yasir Arafat, who ended the innings with 5 for 97.Federal Area’s openers wiped out the deficit with a 31-run stand, but medium-pacers Junaid and Shakeel-ur-Rehman struck timely blows to set up the win. Junaid took 3 for 37 off his 12 overs, while Shakeel got his second five-for – he finished the match with 11 wickets – as Federal Areas crumbled for 103. Nauman Habib took the final wicket – NWFP used only three bowlers – with Mohammad Aamer unable to bat. In 17.4 overs, NWFP’s openers chased the target of 79 to seal the deal.
Scorecard
Only 67.2 overs were possible on the third day at the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore. Sind, resuming on 43 for 1, pushed to 260 for 4 with most of the runs coming in an unbroken 149-run stand between Khurram Manzoor and Afsar Nawaz. Unless there’s a tremendous flurry of wickets on the final day, or some bizarre declarations, a draw is the only possible result.Sind are 140 behind Punjab in the first innings, and they will hope Manzoor and Nawaz help them gain a lead, which will get them three points from the game. At one stage, though, Sind were in danger of being dismissed for a low score. Wickets for left-arm medium-pacer Wahad Riaz – he’s got 2 for 29 off 18 overs in the innings – and one for 16-year-old Adil Raza reduced Sind to 111 for 4. However, Manzoor scored 114, with 14 fours, to take his team safety along with Nawaz, who used up 156 balls for his 62.