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As was widely expected, the PCB has reduced or written off the punishments of four players who the board had only recently found guilty of various misdemeanours

Osman Samiuddin05-Jun-2010As was widely expected, the PCB has reduced or written off the punishments of four players who the board had only recently found guilty of various misdemeanours in the aftermath of an ill-fated, winless Australian tour over the turn of this year. The indefinite ban on former captain Younis Khan was lifted, the Rs 3 million fine on captain Shahid Afridi, for ball-tampering, was revoked entirely, while the fines on the Akmal brothers for acts of indiscipline were reduced.Ever since Shoaib Malik’s one-year ban was removed last week, the PCB had indicated that the punishments for other players would also be lifted. At a press conference to announce Pakistan’s Asia Cup squad two days ago, board chairman Ijaz Butt revealed that he had already recommended these measures to the independent arbitrator overlooking the appeals of the players. Butt staunchly defended the overturning, telling Cricinfo it wasn’t a u-turn, just the following of “a constitutional process.”The decisions were announced by retired judge Irfan Qadir after the latest set of hearings on Saturday morning. Afridi, he explained, had already been punished by the ICC, which had banned him for two Twenty20 internationals, so the question of a second punishment was not on. “The ICC has written a letter to the PCB indicating that the second punishment is wrong,” Qadir told reporters after the hearings in Lahore. “I must appreciate that Afridi accepted his wrongdoing. He accepted that he should not have done it but since he realised it himself I thought that was good and so removed the order on him.”Much the same reasoning was applied to the Akmal brothers, whose fines have been reduced to Rs1 million. The brothers accepted their mistakes. “They were candid in accepting their disciplinary issues. The PCB wanted to halve the fines [Kamran was fined Rs3 million] but I felt all players should now be treated on a par and so brought it down to Rs1 million.”Younis’ case was expected to go on longer as his lawyer Ahmed Qayyum had insisted he would seek no compromised relief and fight to clear his name fully. Qayyum’s persistence, Qadir indicated, won out. “There were many applications from the lawyer but there was no delay from my end. I asked Talib Rizvi [PCB’s legal advisor] what the main allegation was against him. He said it was an open-ended ban and he should not be part of a Pakistan squad. Now that he has been considered for a squad, it means the PCB has reconsidered him so I have simply set aside the order.”The orders leave undecided for now the fate of only two from the seven originally punished. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan is likely to get the same relief at his next hearing on June 19, while the door has also been left open for Mohammad Yousuf – who retired in protest at the punishment – to come back should he wish to.Butt insisted that this wasn’t a u-turn, only the outcome of following the procedures laid down in the board’s constitution. “We only followed the process as it exists in the PCB constitution. There is an allowance in the constitution for punished players to appeal and they did and this is the result,” he told Cricinfo.However, he admitted that other factors came into play. “There were many appeals from many quarters which asked us to reconsider the punishments. For example the national assembly committee on sports met and the chairman asked me, after detailed discussions with a number of people, to review the decisions. I said there is an appeals process already in place and it is on and we are looking at it as we should and that we will review them. The independent arbitrator was appointed and he took into account many things before coming to this. A process has been followed.”Butt argued that the decisions would not send the wrong kind of message – that acts of indiscipline would go unchecked by the board – to the players. “Not at all. A loud and clear message has been conveyed to the players. On the Asia Cup and England tours I have left the entire responsibility of discipline in the hands of the captain and manager. If there is a single act of indiscipline, they have my backing to send the player back without even consulting me or anyone in the board. Already in the West Indies [for the World T20], the players were better and performed better.”

Sterner tests lie in wait but the Indian management will be satisfied that three players returning from injuries didn’t show any fitness trouble

Siddarth Ravindran in Dambulla16-Jun-2010After Tuesday’s hard-fought tournament opener, the second match turned into another chapter of the Asia Cup’s long history of one-sided encounters. India won’t be complaining though after a hassle-free victory over Bangladesh in a match in which they welcomed seven regulars back to the XI.Sterner tests lie in wait but the Indian management will be satisfied that three players returning from injuries – Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Virender Sehwag – didn’t show any fitness trouble. Zaheer and Praveen had some problems early on against the rampant Bangladesh openers, but recovered after the brief onslaught. Sehwag, in fact, had shrugged off his shoulder worries so much that he wiped out the Bangladesh tail to finish with career-best figures.Once the bowlers had done the job, Gautam Gambhir orchestrated the chase with another sensible innings that was more about placement than power. A strike-rate of 80 is pedestrian in most one-dayers these days, but with a tiny target on a track which wasn’t tailor-made for batting, it was sufficient.Gambhir said it took a while to switch to one-day pace after playing months of Twenty20. “When you are in Twenty20 mode you want to really hit the ball and these aren’t the conditions for that,” he said. “You have to graft your way through, and initially I was thinking of hitting the ball before I realised I have 50 overs, and not 20, to play.”Another factor to which the players must adjust to in Dambulla is the slightly dim floodlights, which Lasith Malinga talked about on Tuesday and MS Dhoni commented on after today’s game. India will be thankful their batsmen got their first chance to play under lights when the requirements for a win weren’t taxing. Adding to the floodlight trouble is the fact that it gets harder to bat as the match progresses.”If you saw the last game also, the ball does a lot more [under lights] than in the afternoon,” Gambhir said, “the kind of atmosphere here, the kind of breeze and kind of wickets here, it would definitely do a lot, anything around 250-260 will be a very good total on this track.”India’s job was made easier by an all-too-familiar Bangladesh collapse after the top-order had galloped to 77 for 1 after 13 overs. There was a rash of bad strokes, but the Indian spinners were spot on as well. “It [bowling Bangladesh out cheaply] was the prefect platform for the top-order batsman to just go out there, get used to the wicket, get used to the conditions, and try and play a long innings,” Gambhir said.The win also came as a relief after the dismal World Twenty20 campaign and the embarrassing defeats in Zimbabwe and Gambhir credited the break for refreshing him. “You come back fresh, you forget what happened at the World Twenty20, you have more energy and you are more eager to perform.” Also, victory with the bonus point reduces the pressure to win in the high-profile match coming up against Pakistan, who can’t afford another defeat after the opening-day defeat.It wasn’t all hunky-dory for India though. Gambhir wasn’t near his best, and the finish could have been more interesting had Tamim hung on to a catch at third man off Gambhir soon after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were dismissed off successive deliveries. The ever-dependable Dhoni saw India through, but the youngsters missed out on a chance to get used to unfamiliar conditions. The pace department also needs improvement, though Zaheer was hostile in his second spellDhoni and his boys will face far tougher challenges in the rest of the tournament but they will be pleased to have not stumbled at the first hurdle.

Diligent batting by Tom Smith and Mark Chilton dug Lancashire out of trouble in the County Championship Division One match with Hampshire at the Rose Bowl

31-Jul-2010

ScorecardMark Chilton stood firm and battled through to the close to give Lancashire hopes of a draw•PA Photos

Diligent batting by Tom Smith and Mark Chilton dug Lancashire out of trouble in the County Championship Division One match with Hampshire at the Rose Bowl.Lancashire, the only unbeaten team in the championship, started their second innings 86 in arrears and facing a grim battle for survival. Their plight worsened in the fourth over when left arm pace bowler James Tomlinson found a gap in the defences of opener Paul Horton and bowled him.This left Lancashire eight for one and it was then that Smith and Chilton came together in a gritty unbroken stand of 98 for the second wicket to halt Hampshire’s charge. Smith, who only five times previously had reached the half-century mark, ended the third day 60 not out while Chilton, no less vigilant, was unbeaten with 32.At the close Lancashire were 106 for 1 from 52 overs, a precarious lead of 20 after Smith and Chilton had begun the repair job. Hampshire were held up in the first instance by the effects of overnight rain which wiped 16 overs from the day’s allocation.They began the day four runs ahead of the Lancashire first innings total at 287 for 6 and were in no mood to let Lancashire back into the game. Lancashire captain Glen Chapple quickly removed debut-making Michael Bates and David Balcombe but former Lancashire all-rounder and now Hampshire captain Dominic Cork engineered a spirited tail-end resistance.Tomlinson helped Cork put on 48 for the ninth wicket before Gary Keedy dismissed Tomlinson and Danny Briggs. Cork was left unbeaten with 54 from 79 balls, helping Hampshire build an impressive first innings lead of 86.Chapple took 4 for 68 and Keedy claimed 4 for 56 as Hampshire were eventually all out for 369. The early loss of Horton caused more problems for Lancashire but Smith and Chilton spent the next 48 overs making sure there were no further successes for Hampshire.Smith’s innings has so far occupied 155 balls and Chilton’s has taken him another 147 but the value to Lancashire in the circumstances was immense. Left arm spinner Briggs bowled 19 of the 52 overs so far in the Lancashire innings but there was little in the wicket to help him compared with the exaggerated movement of the first day.Lancashire’s careful second-wicket pair took their side to the 100 mark in the 48 overs but it needed 39 before the deficit was eradicated.

The Karachi City Cricket Association has condemned the national side and the selection committee for failing to put together “a representative team” in the ongoing Test series

Osman Samiuddin11-Aug-2010The Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) has condemned the national side and the selection committee for failing to put together “a representative team” in the ongoing Test series against England. The statement articulates the growing disquiet in Karachi in particular over the absence of a number of players from the city and concern that the Pakistan team is being dominated by one province.Following the exclusion of Danish Kaneria after the first Test, Tanvir Ahmed is the only player in the squad from Karachi, a city that has traditionally been a large provider to the national side. The KCCA’s executive council met on Tuesday and slammed the selection committee, “for their biased attitude which totally ignored the talent of Karachi cricketers like Sarfraz Ahmed, Khurram Manzoor, Khalid Latif, Faisal Iqbal and Asad Shafiq. The PCB selectors have deliberately failed to consider the performances of the above mentioned cricketers in national tournaments.”With the exception of Sarfraz and Shafiq, few of those mentioned can have solid grievances; Sarfraz was back-up to Kamran Akmal and made his debut in the last Test in Australia only to find himself out of national reckoning under the selection committee of Mohsin Khan. Shafiq was the top-scorer in last season’s Quaid-e-Azam trophy, one of only two men to score over a thousand runs.Iqbal, Latif and Manzoor have all been given runs in the Test and ODI sides over the last year, though none have cemented a place with weight of performance. Though not mentioned in the statement, a number of ex-players have also asked questions about the continued absence of Fawad Alam from the Test side, and even that of Mohammad Sami.The current Pakistan side is heavily dominated by players from the country’s most populous province, Punjab, and it’s capital Lahore in particular. Eight players in the 17-man squad are from Lahore and another six from around the province. Yasir Hameed and Umar Gul are from Khyber-Pakhtunkwa in the north-west and Tanvir, who was born in Kuwait, is from Karachi. Gul is now  injured and if Hameed is not picked for the next Test at The Oval, Pakistan will field, possibly for the first time ever, a national side comprised solely of players from one province.Over the summer, a number of ex-players and former selectors have privately expressed their unease over the composition of the squad. “Karachi has produced less talent over the last few years, but to think that there is no place for any player from here is not right and gives the sense that there is something else at play,” one former selector told Cricinfo. “There are deserving players, like Sarfraz and Fawad, and even Asad [Shafiq], who have been overlooked. For that matter, even Naved Yasin [from Multan and second-highest scorer in the Quaid trophy] has been overlooked wrongly.”The KCCA’s statement signals the relighting of a historically bustling but often tense rivalry between Lahore and Karachi, the two biggest cricket centres for many years. The cities produced the vast majority of the national side’s players, but as smaller towns in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkwa have begun contributing more in recent years, the rivalry had taken a back seat.

Play was abandoned without a ball bowled in the County Championship match between Somerset and Durham for the second successive day at Taunton after a 2.30pm pitch inspection

26-Aug-2010

ScorecardPlay was abandoned without a ball bowled in the County Championship match between Somerset and Durham for the second successive day at Taunton after a 2.30pm pitch inspection.Although the rain stopped during the morning, so much had fallen in the previous 24 hours that the outfield remained saturated.The umpires inspected at 12.30pm and 1.30pm, seeing little improvement, and when a further hour brought no significant change they decided there was no prospect of play. Somerset were due to resume their first innings on 287 for 4.

Sessay from Yorkshire cruised to a seven-wicket victory over previous champions Shipton to win the npower Village Cup in front of an enthusiastic crowd at a sun-drenched Lord’s

Martin Williamson at Lord's12-Sep-2010 Sessay 228 for 3 (Wilkie 78, Till 56) beat Shipton-under-Wychwood 227 for 5 (Hemming 59) by seven wicketsJohn Flintoff and Nick Harrison celebrate Sessay ‘s winning runs•Martin Williamson

Sessay from Yorkshire cruised to a seven-wicket victory over previous champions Shipton-under-Wychwood from Oxfordshire to win the npower Village Cup in front of an enthusiastic crowd at a sun-drenched Lord’s. No side had successfully chased a target as big as 228 in the previous 38 finals, but Sessay did so at a canter with 17 balls to spare.After a few weeks where cricket has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, this contest allowed traditionalists to argue the game still has its moments. The pre-match build-up had centred on 55-year-old John Flintoff who had been playing for Sessay for four decades. Back in 1976 he had to miss Sessay’s only previous appearance in a Village Cup final because of injury, but 34 years later he finally got another chance. It was fitting that he was in the middle when the winning runs were hit.Shipton, who came into the game as favourites, won here in 2002 and 2003 and seven of that side from the second victory played again today. While that experience held them in good stead, in the field they at times looked to be carrying a few passengers, and while that was not the difference between the sides, it made it very hard for them to sustain pressure on the Sessay batsmen at key points.But with the exception of Chris Panter, Shipton’s front-line bowlers never settled, and Paul Hemming found himself having to replace Craig Lambert and Charlie Brain after two overs each as both sprayed the new ball around. Thereafter, Hemming relied almost entirely on his spinners but while better, they too lacked consistency.After a circumspect start, Sessay’s openers Mark Wilkie and Matthew Till capitalised on the wayward bowling, aided by a liberal sprinkling of wides and misfields. Wilkie, who had spent a spell as an MCC Young Cricketer at Lord’s, accumulated steadily with some neat strokeplay off his pads. Had Paul Jennings stumped him early on off a routine chance the game could have taken a very different path. Till, meanwhile, used his reach well and hit anything short or wide with increasing power through the off side.Shipton-under-Wychwood’s Andy Hemming is spectacularly caught by Nick Harrison off Richard Till for 59•Martin Williamson

The opening stand of 127 ended when Till fell to a juggling catch by Tim Senior on the deep square-leg boundary for a 54-ball 56, but Man of the Match Wilkie continued to press on, and by the time he top-edged a sweep for 78 the game was all but won.Nick Thorne quashed any lingering Yorkshire hopes with 42 from 38 deliveries, and his departure, stumped down the leg side, brought in Flintoff. Hemming crowded the bat to try to put added pressure on the veteran, but he responded with two cracking off-side boundaries to take his side to the brink of victory. It fell to Nick Harrison to hit the winning runs, but Flintoff understandably led the celebrations like a man half his age.Earlier on, Shipton, who had been stuck in on a green pitch, made a solid start but Andy Hemming and Charlie Brain took their time to build any momentum ahead against some tight bowling and enthusiastic fielding. It took them ten overs to pass 30 and another eight to reach 60, but thereafter the scoring rate steadily increased.The breakthrough which ended the 88-run first-wicket stand was unfortunate, Hemming’s defensive shot trickling back into his stumps and barely dislodging a bail, and then Brain was well caught by a sprawling Harrison, one of the wicketkeeper’s three dismissals.Steve Bates upped the tempo with Tim Senior, but it was the arrival of Jason Hunt that really silenced the outnumbered Sessay support. On the extreme end of burly, he slammed five sixes off the first eight balls he faced, four over the short leg-side boundary on the Tavern side and a slashed cover drive into the Mound Stand. Had he stayed he could have put the game out of reach in a matter of overs; as it was, he scored 38 off 13 balls before unwisely trying to use his feet and being stumped.Bates kept attacking as the last ten overs produced 99 runs and enabled Shipton to post the fourth-highest score in a final. It appeared to be more than enough, but Flintoff had not waited all those years to be denied.

Australia fast bowler Doug Bollinger and middle-order batsman Michael Hussey will return to Australia prior to the third ODI against India in Goa on October 24

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Oct-2010Australia fast bowler Doug Bollinger and middle-order batsman Michael Hussey will return to Australia prior to the third ODI against India in Goa on October 24.Hussey is being sent back to play Western Australia’s Sheffield Shield match against South Australia, while Bollinger’s return is to help the rehabilitation of his abdominal strain, which has kept him on the bench since the first Test in Mohali.”Doug reported some minor discomfort to his abdomen during his rehabilitation from the previous injury,” Australia physio Kevin Sims said. “We do not think the new issue is serious, however it will prevent him from achieving the workloads necessary for him to be available for selection in the third ODI in Goa. Therefore we have decided it is in his best interests to return to Australia for further assessment and to outline further rehabilitation. Doug’s return-to-cricket date will be finalised following this assessment.”The decision to send Hussey home is to help manage his workload in the lead-up to a packed home summer, which includes the Ashes. Hussey struggled for form in the India Tests, managing 99 runs in four innings with a highest score of 34. He was fluent in the second ODI in Visakhapatnam, scoring an assured 69 in Australia’s defeat, but the board thought a four-day fixture following some rest would help him more than another one-dayer in conditions different to those he will encounter at home during the coming months.”As part of the ongoing individual workload management ahead of an exciting Australian summer and the World Cup in the subcontinent, Michael Hussey will not play in the third one-day game in India and will return home to Australia,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said. “Michael will have a few days off and then resume cricket in the Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and WA commencing on 29 October at Adelaide Oval.”Both players had joined the squad in India late after fulfilling their Champions League commitments for the Chennai Super Kings in South Africa.

Chris Martin, the New Zealand seamer, had a poor 2009-10 season and has said that his performance in the upcoming series against India will help him decide on his future

Sriram Veera in Ahmedabad02-Nov-2010Chris Martin, the New Zealand seamer, had a poor 2009-10 season and has said that his performance in the upcoming series against India will help him decide on his future. “I would like to go out on my terms. I don’t have any confirmed feeling on how long I will continue; whether I will play one more year or not. It will be totally about enjoyment and that will only come if I do well.”Martin, who has taken 181 wickets in 56 Tests, picked up only 16 wickets at 47.93 in the six Tests he played in the last year. His bowling had lost sting so much so that during a wicket-less Test – Martin’s last- against Australia in Hamilton, he was the last of the five specialist bowlers Daniel Vettori turned to in Australia’s second innings.”I didn’t enjoy the last year,” Martin, who will turn 36 this December, said. “I don’t know whether it was a cyclical thing or something to do with me getting old. The goal this year is to put that right. I am training and working my butt off and I will decide on my future based on how I am enjoying while bowling in the matches.”Mark Greatbatch, New Zealand’s coach, shared his views on the pace options besides Martin. “We’ve two guys who have come in, Andy McKay and Hamish Bennett.Both are young as far as the international scene is concerned but both have got raw pace about them and that can make a lot of difference. I think Tim Southee is developing. He is only 21-22; he has got a bit of experience.”Some of these guys haven’t been seen much by the opposition and that’s always quite a good thing as far as not picking up a bowler goes.”Martin was hopeful that the pitch would offer something to the seamers. “If the practice pitches are anything to go by, you would see the seamers having a role in the game. If you look at the stats for the last three series in India, I think the spinner and the quickies have taken wickets evenly. It gives me a bit of a chance and bit of a hope that the wicket will deteriorate and hopefully I will get into the act.”Martin said that his team was mentally prepared for the SG ball that aids reverse-swing. “This ball reverses earlier and more than the Kookaburra ball; My last international game was in April. There is no warm-up game here, but the way international calendar is these days, it’s not a surprise.” Martin said he hoped that the experience of playing in Zimbabwe on the A tour would stand him in good stead. “It’s good to have some cricket under your belt.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the fifth ODI between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in Chittagong

The Preview by Dustin Silgardo11-Dec-2010

Match Facts

Sunday, December 12
Start time 09:00 (03:00 GMT)
Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons and Zimbabwe coach Alan Butcher were unhappy with the drainage system in Chittagong•Associated Press

The Big Picture

All eyes will be on the weather in Chittagong ahead of the fifth and final ODI of the series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The fourth match was called off due to a soggy outfield, and more showers are predicted for the weekend. The drainage system at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium has come in for flak, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s chief Manzur Ahmed has suggested using a large cover across the whole ground to protect the outfield. Otherwise, even mild rain could lead to the last match being abandoned.With Bangladesh leading 2-1, the best Zimbabwe can do is draw the series, and their coach Alan Butcher admitted that would be a good result for them after they were beaten 4-1 in Bangladesh in 2009. Zimbabwe have lost their previous four ODI series in Bangladesh.Sunday’s one-dayer is the last scheduled international match for both sides before the 2011 World Cup, and may be the final chance for fringe players to make their case. Both teams have settled bowling attacks, but there are still spots to be fought for in their batting line-ups.Hamilton Masakadza, one of Zimbabwe’s most important batsman over the past few years, has been in poor form and will be under pressure from Regis Chakabva for a place in the team. An experienced batsman for the home side, Mohammad Ashraful, will also be struggling for a place, with Raqibul Hasan and Naeem Islam likely to keep him out again.

Form Guide

(most recent first)
Bangladesh: WWLWW
Zimbabwe: LLWLL

Watch out for …

Craig Ervine has had a couple of starts in the series, but has still only got one half-century in his 13-match ODI career. Ervine said he had been working hard on playing spinners in the nets, and it was paying off in the series. In the first two ODIs he was the only batsman who looked capable of dealing with Bangladesh’s left-arm spinners in the middle overs.Abdur Razzak has a chance to break two records in the match in Chittagong. He has the chance to be the first bowler to take four wickets in four consecutive ODIs if he repeats his efforts of the first three matches in the last one. With 13 wickets in the series, he is also three wickets away from the record for the most number of wickets by a bowler in a five-match bilateral ODI series.

Pitch conditions

Ahead of the fourth match, both teams’ players said they expected significant turn from the Chittagong wicket. Ahead of Sunday’s game, the question is more whether there will be any play at all. The poor drainage facilities are even more concerning as the venue will host two World Cup games. Ahmed said there was no time for significant alterations to the ground since the World Cup is two months away. “We have to bring a large cover to protect this ground since the drainage system is not up to the mark,” he said.

Teams

Elton Chigumbura, who missed the previous game with a groin strain, should be fit for the last match. Masakadza practised in the nets on Friday, so will probably get another opportunity to prove himself.Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Brendan Taylor, 2 Hamilton Masakadza, 3 Regis Chakabva, 4.Elton Chigumbura, 5 Tatenda Taibu (wk), 6 Craig Ervine, 7 Prosper Utseya, 8 Graeme Cremer, 9 Shingirai Masakadza, 10 Raymond Price, 11 Chris MpofuBangladesh are unlikely to change their winning combination.Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Junaid Siddique, 4 Raqibul Hasan, 5 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 7 Naeem Islam, 8 Suhrawadi Shuvo, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza, 10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Shafiul Islam

Stats and Trivia

• Zimbabwe have won 20.61% of their matches in the subcontinent, having got 20 victories out of 97 matches.
• Bangladesh’s winning percentage in ODIs over the last two years is 48.89%, the sixth best among all nations.

Quotes

“A better ground for soccer? You might get football matches called off here.”
“It is very frustrating, considering the sun was out virtually the whole day but we couldn’t play the match.” Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, was similarly disappointed at the time the outfield took to dry.