India are the new champions of the Hong Kong Sixes, after seeing off West Indies with a comfortable six balls to spare in the final. England, the former title-holders, had earlier bowed out at the semi-final stage, losing to West Indies by six runs.India’s star was the former one-day international allrounder, Robin Singh, who led by example, scoring 34 off 15 balls before retiring, leaving Hrishikesh Kanitkar to hit the winning runs. West Indies had managed a total of 72 for 1 in five eight-ball overs, but it never looked like being enough.”We really wanted to restrict them and the bowlers did a magnificent job,” Singh told the Press Association, after claiming the 100,000 dollar prize. “We played to win the tournament and that’s what we did so we are delighted.”England had been the winners in both 2003 and 2004, but this time their challenge came to an end at the semi-final stage, when Robert Croft’s team were unable to overhaul a total of 72 for 3, in which Lendl Simmons top-scored with 25. Chris Read gave England hope by clobbering 27 runs from nine balls, but a collapse of three wickets for two runs scuppered their prospects.”Obviously we’re a bit disappointed,” said England’s Kabir Ali, after England had failed to reach the final for the first time in four years. “We could have done a better job. We did a decent job with the ball but with the batting, we sort of collapsed there in the middle after the good start we had.In the other semi-final, India beat Sri Lanka by four wickets.

Greg Chappell, the Indian coach, believes that Sachin Tendulkar is set to make a sparkling return to international cricket. “Sachin is well and truly on track to hit good form,” Chappell told AFP ahead of a seven-match one-day home series against Sri Lanka starting at Nagpur on October 25.Tendulkar, who is the world’s leading scorer with 13,642 runs in 348 one-day matches and a record 38 centuries, has been out of action with an injured elbow ever since India hosted Pakistan in April but played in a domestic one-day tournament earlier this month. “Sachin has been batting well and his presence is good for other players,” Chappell said at the end of a three-day conditioning camp at the National Cricket Academy in Banglaore. “We are happy that from the fitness point of view he was fine during the camp. I think that’s a very positive thing.”After the one-dayers against Sri Lanka, India play another five games against South Africa from mid-November. India, World Cup finalist in 2003, have slumped to number seven in the ICC’s one-day rankings, while Sri Lanka are second behind Australia, and South Africa fifth.Chappell, who took over as India’s coach in June, wants to pick those players whom he considers likely contenders for the next World Cup in the Caribbean. “The year 2007 seems a long way away but we need to start looking at it seriously from now, taking into account injuries, form and other factors,” he said. “We need to use our resources wisely as it’s easier for a youngster to come into an experienced side. Australia struggled in the 1980s because they did not bring in youngsters at the right time and we need to be careful in that regard.”India have played two one-day finals this season and lost both – to Sri Lanka in Colombo and New Zealand in Harare – and its batting also presents a vulnerable look with Sachin Tendulkar feeling his way back after an elbow injury. “We have been planning some different combinations and hope to put up a good show against Sri Lanka, who are a fine side,” Chappell said.The Indian squad for the first two one-dayers against Sri Lanka, which excludes former captain Sourav Ganguly, bears the Chappell stamp with a horde of youngsters rubbing shoulders with the veterans. Seven players in the 15-man squad have played less than 20 one-day internationals with S Sreesanth being a debutant. Notable omissions due to injury or poor form included Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Anil Kumble and Laxmipathy Balaji, four regular front-line bowlers, leaving the attack badly shorn of experience.Ajit Agarkar, with 217 one-day wickets, is the most experienced bowler in the squad. He is followed by spinner Harbhajan Singh with 127 wickets and Irfan Pathan (63). The four remaining bowlers, Sreesanth, Murali Kartik, Rudra Pratap Singh and Jai Prakash Yadav, have 24 wickets between them. These bowlers are expected to contain a strong Sri Lankan batting line-up that includes Sanath Jayasuriya (10,122 runs), skipper Marvan Atapattu (7,543), Mahela Jayawardene (4,739) and Kumar Sangakarra (3,371) on Indian wickets tailor-made for batting.

Shane Warne on Friday urged selectors to bring in fellow leg-spinner Stuart MacGill to bamboozle the West Indies in the second Test at Hobart starting on November 17.MacGill was left out of Australia’s massive 379-run victory over the tourists in last week’s first Test for seamer Nathan Bracken, but there is a push to get the wrist-spinner to reunite with Warne for the second encounter. Statistics show that the West Indies have a history of weakness facing leg-spin bowlers.Warne, Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker, has captured 54 wickets in 17 Tests against the West Indies at 30.18, while MacGill has 48 in 12 Tests at 31.89. With the pair bowling at their peak — they have taken 28 wickets between them in their past two Tests together — Warne believes he and his spin partner can inflict more pain on the tourists on a Bellerive ‘turner’.”If conditions suit down there, I’m sure we can do well like we have in the Super Test (against a World XI) in Sydney recently. I think both of us are bowling better now than we have before. We went to Sri Lanka [last year] and bowled together, and against Pakistan this year in Sydney, and the Super Test — in those Test matches we’ve bowled together, I’ve been fully fit and he’s been bowling well. We’ve done very well together, so I’m sure we can cause a lot of batsmen out there a bit of heartache.”In 1999, Warne was dropped for the first and only time in his Test career on the tour of the Caribbean, and injuries after that prevented him from playing against the West Indies until last week’s first Test in Brisbane, where he took 5-48.Selectors are also tinkering with bolstering the middle order with debutant Brad Hodge and all-rounder Andrew Symonds, which could mean MacGill might miss out again.

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Ibrahim Khaleel’s second century of the season – a fighting knock under trying circumstances – appeared unlikely to prevent Hyderabad, still 183 runs behind with only three wickets in hand, from slipping to defeat against Punjab at Chandigarh. Punjab were in a dominant position after amassing 550 for 7 in their first innings, thanks to centuries from Ravneet Ricky, who notched his career-best 180, Gaurav Gupta and Muneesh Sharma, whose maiden first-class hundred came in only his fifth match. Punjab’s day of dominance continued through its fast bowlers – Gagandeep Singh, Hardevinder Sandhu and L Ablash picked up two wickets each. All three bowlers were irrepressible in the afternoon session, leaving Hyderabad shell-shocked at 4 for 11 before Khaleel, the wicketkeeper, led a fine counterattack.
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A brilliant 133-run partnership between Sachin Rana, the first innings centurion, and Siddharth Verma, gave Haryana a lead of 144 over Baroda on the third day of their Elite Group B match at Sirsa. Rana carried on from his magnificent display in the first innings, but it was a marked improvement from the supporting act, namely Verma and Bagheshwar Bist, who hit a solid 40 from the No.3 spot. Earlier, four wickets from Joginder Sharma, Haryana’s opening bowler, helped dismiss Baroda for 339, but not before Rakesh Solanki stroked a vital 74, a knock that could help them gain first-innings points.
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Harvinder Singh and Jai Prakash Yadav, Railways’ opening bowlers, gave their side a whiff of victory after prizing out one wicket apiece late on the third day at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi, leaving Gujarat with 268 more to get. Thanks to a vital fifty from Raja Ali, Railways was given the opportunity to declare their second innings on 295 for 6 and attack the opposition with the 30 remaining overs of the day.
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Mayank Tehlan’s glorious maiden century took Delhi to 370 for 9 as they all but assured themselves of first-innings honours at the end of the third day’s play at Delhi. Tehlan’s gritty knock, grafted out in a little more than ten hours, contained just eight fours as he, along with Kunal Lal at No.10, ensured a dominant position. With hardly any time to force a result, the Maharashtra openers, Mansigh Nidge and Dheeraj Jadhav, settled for batting practice and grinded out 16.2 overs to score just 17 before stumps were called.
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A vital hundred from Rizwan Shamshad, Uttar Pradesh’s veteran batsman, and a brilliant 96-run stand for the final wicket between Gyanendra Pandey, the captain, and Ashish Zaidi took UP to 430 for 9 at Lucknow, and gave them a 19-run lead over Services. Ravikant Shukla and Suresh Raina also chipped in with fifties as UP enjoyed a prosperous day with the bat. Arun Sharma, the slow left-arm bowler, was the most successful bowler for Services with 4 for 85. With one day to go, a draw may be the likely result unless UP’s bowlers can engineer a turnaround tomorrow.
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Stoic fifties from Arindam Das and Rohan Gavaskar gave Bengal a 147-run lead against Mumbai at the end of the third day’s play at the Wankhede Stadium. Bengal, 37 for 0 overnight, prospered through the day’s play despite some testing spells from Nilesh Kulkarni, Mumbai’s left-arm spinner, who picked up two wickets. However, an inability to score quickly left them with only one day to force a result, failing which Mumbai will take two points from a drawn encounter.
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No play was possible owing to wet ground conditions and the umpires abandoned proceedings without a ball being bowled.

Bad weather disrupted the opening day of the four-day Quadrangular Stage encounter between Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and Habib Bank in the Patron’s Trophy Cricket Championship.After having been asked to bat first, PTCL reached 58 for 2 when the day’s play was called off because of poor weather and deteriorating light.PTCL are yet to win a Patron’s Trophy title while Habib Bank are seven-time winners of the competition. Habib Bank shared the trophy last season with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) after the final was rained off.After a group-league round among 10 teams divided in two groups, the top two teams from either pool have qualified for the tournament’s Quadrangular Stage round. The side finishing on top of the points table will be crowned the season’s Patron’s Trophy champion. The Quadrangular Stage round will have the four teams playing three matches each. The other two teams that have made it this far are PIA and National Bank of Pakistan, five-time Patron’s Trophy champions.The other match between Pakistan International Airlines and National Bank of Pakistan, due to start at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) Stadium in Rawalpindi, saw a completely blank day due to rain in the city.

Sri Lanka are poised to appoint a new captain and rest key senior players for their forthcoming tour of Bangladesh which follows the ongoing VB Series. According to selection sources, Marvan Atapattu, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan are expected to be rested as the selectors look to the future.Sri Lanka’s selectors are concerned about player burnout due to the team’s intensive schedule in 2006 and want to keep senior players fresh. Atapattu has been struggling with a back injury and the break will allow him to recover fully for a Test and ODI series against Pakistan starting in March. Muralitharan will miss the one-day leg of the tour so he can see his newly born son for the first time.The final make-up of the squad and the new captain will be finalised on Monday when the selectors meet. Lalith Kaluperuma, the chairman of selectors, is currently in Australia with the team but will return in time for the meeting. Sri Lanka are due to depart for Bangladesh on February 17.Most discussion will centre around the appointment of the captain and vice-captain. Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, the former vice-captain until Vaas’s appointment midway through the India tour last year, are the clear frontrunners, although there is also a possibility that Sanath Jayasuriya, the former captain, could take up the job in an interim capacity.

Racist crowd taunts at Australian grounds this summer have increased to include Sri Lanka, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The paper also said John Rhodes, the ICC’s regional security chief, was punched by a spectator at Melbourne’s Telstra Dome as the behaviour of supporters comes under even heavier scrutiny following derogatory remarks made to South Africa’s squad throughout their tour.The report said up to five spectators were ejected from the Adelaide Oval on Australia Day for calling the Sri Lankans “black c****”. The same description was yelled by Darren Lehmann, the South Australia captain, in a Brisbane dressing room after he was dismissed in a 2002-03 VB Series match against Sri Lanka, and he received a five-match suspension that ruled him out of the early stages of the World Cup. Indian supporters were also targeted at the Adelaide Oval during the 2003-04 tour.Cricket Australia has a zero-tolerance policy on racist remarks and is reviewing its security policy after problems in each of the three Tests were carried into the VB Series. A spectator was evicted at the Gabba for a verbal attack on Shaun Pollock and South Africa’s chief executive Gerald Majola said at the weekend the United Cricket Board would consider not returning to Australia because of the behaviour.”It is not right when a country has a history like ours,” he said in . “The sad thing is it has continued around Australia. It hasn’t just been limited to one state or city.”The said Rhodes, the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit boss in Australia and New Zealand, was punched after an inebriated spectator reportedly accused him of being South African. The man was later ejected from the ground.

Australia may be hit by injuries and down 1-0 in the five-match one-day series, but Michael Clarke does not think there is much to worry about. Clarke, who scored a half-century in Sunday’s six-wicket loss, believes the side is playing well despite losing the opening two games of the tour.”[The first ODI] was a little bit disappointing but we’re not far away,” he told . “I don’t think we have too much to worry about. We’re playing pretty good cricket.”Australia’s back-up bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Mick Lewis suffered in the first one-dayer alongside Brett Lee, but injuries are becoming a greater problem as Ricky Ponting (stomach), Andrew Symonds (hip) and Stuart Clark (rib) are all in doubt for Friday’s second match at Cape Town. Phil Jaques will arrive in South Africa as cover on Wednesday and will be considered for a spot at No. 3 or in the middle order.Ponting is hopeful of playing and Clarke backed his captain to be fit. “Fingers crossed, I hope Ricky is fine for Friday, so Phil probably won’t get the chance to play,” Clarke said. “Jaquesy is a fantastic player. As he has shown before, he’ll step up and do well. We’ll get Jaquesy if Ricky and Andrew [Symonds] aren’t fit.”Clarke said the appearance of both injured players would give the side a big lift as they attempt to level the series. “Ricky and Andrew, if they don’t score a run between them, just their presence in the field is missed unbelievably,” Clarke said. “Punter is the No. 1 batsman in the world at the moment and ‘Symmo’ is certainly up there. You can’t replace those sorts of guys and they were certainly missed.”The Test squad is announced next week and Clarke has been fine-tuning his new-ball method in the nets in a bid to return to the squad for the three-match series starting on March 16. “I just need to continue working hard on my game, continue scoring runs and hopefully another opportunity will come up,” he said.

Sachin Tendulkar will miss the one-day series against England because of a posterior labrum tear* and cyst in his right shoulder. He has been advised immediate surgery and will be out of competitive cricket for at least eight weeks following the operation.Munaf Patel was included in the squad for the first three ODIs after an impressive showing in the Tests against England while Venugopal Rao has been recalled after missing the tour of Pakistan.Virender Sehwag, who missed the last three one-day matches in Pakistan, comes back into the squad, though he too has been struggling with a back problem in this Test. When asked about the retention of Gautam Gambhir and the possibility of Sourav Ganguly’s name coming up for discussion, Kiran More, the chairman of selectors, said: “We discussed a lot of names. Gambir made runs in the tour game [against England] and we don’t want to disturb the combination that won 4-1 in Pakistan.”Asked about Zaheer Khan being omitted, More said that his showing had not been up to expectations in Pakistan, curtly telling a reporter to “check statistics” when asked if that was really the case.More also said that there was no temptation to bring back Anil Kumble, despite his sterling performances in the Test series. “He has been our main strike bowler in Tests, bowling upto 40 and 50 overs a game,” said More, adding that no one was out of contention.India
Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Irfan Pathan, Venugopal Rao, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Rudra Pratap Singh

*

Suggestions that some of the grounds scheduled to host matches during next year’s World Cup will not be ready on time have been dismissed by Chris Dehring, the tournament’s managing director and chief executive officer.Concerns have grown after contractors at Sabina Park admitted that there were serious delays in the ground’s rebuild, but Dehring said that it was “full steam ahead”, adding that a contingency plan had been submitted to the ICC in case there were any last-minute problems.”Everyone is moving forward as planned,” he told reporters in Grenada. “Of course we have a back-up plan in place and it is currently being reviewed by the ICC. That plan will only be implemented if absolutely necessary. At present, there is no one country that is being earmarked to ‘take’ matches currently assigned to another host venue.”If a decision were to be taken to relocate matches from one host venue to another, it could only be taken by the organisers. This is not a decision that can be made by anyone outside.”Dehring explained that it was “critical to the overall success of the tournament, at this time every country is expected to meet its obligation to host matches. Each host venue is working not only on the completion of their stadia but on all the other infrastructural elements required to support the hosting of the tournament.”We have just over 300 days to go, including weekends and public holidays, and everyone concerned is working assiduously to ensure that no time is lost.Dehring also said that a revised plan had now been submitted for Sabina Park which would ensure it was ready on time. Warner Park in St Kitts is almost finished, and work on the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua is ahead of schedule. Guyana’s Providence Stadium is also set to be ready ahead of the organisers’ deadline.