All posts by csb10.top

Zaheer Khan, the Indian fast bowler, has quit Baroda and is all set to represent Mumbai this domestic season. He reportedly made this decision after Dilip Vengsarkar, the new Indian chairman of selectors, asked him to apply for a transfer.Zaheer has requested a No Objection Certificate from the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) and would have submit it to the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) before the September 30 deadline for all players applying for transfers. A formal announcement is likely when the MCA managing committee meets on Friday.Rakesh Parikh, the secretary of the BCA, confirmed Zaheer’s request but stated that his departure would leave a void in the Baroda side, which won the Ranji Trophy in 2001. In the final against Railways, Zaheer picked up five wickets for just 16 runs on the final day to bowl Railways out and secure the title by a narrow margin.”He had played an important role in making the team Ranji Trophy champions five years ago when Baroda had defeated Railways,” Parikh told PTI. “In subsequent years, Baroda continued to do well in Ranji with Zaheer playing his role sincerely in all the matches.”Zaheer honed his cricketing skills in Mumbai in 1996-97 but later shifted to Baroda, after failing to find a place in the Mumbai line-up. He made his Ranji Trophy debut in 1999-2000 representing Baroda and was called to the national side in 2000. However, he has been out of the Indian team since the tour of Pakistan earlier this year and failed to make the cut when the Champions Trophy squad was announced, despite a memorable season with English county Worcestershire, during which he picked up 69 wickets in the County Championship.

Pakistan are looking forward to the ICC World Twenty20, with the fast-paced nature of the game being ideally suited to their young and dynamic side.Shahid Afridi, who has already hit 229 sixes in ODIs, would be keen to showcase his abilities in the tournament. “It’s like watching the highlights, you definitely have a more energetic feeling in Twenty20,” Afridi said. “But you can play sensibly as well during the first six or seven overs because 20 overs is still a lot; you still need to keep wickets in hand for the end.”Younis Khan was also taken in by the Twenty20 game.”It’s fast and furious and good for the skills. It’s under that sort of pressure that you find out about yourself,” he said. “The boys are used to it and we should have the edge over the other Asian teams, but it is a funny type of cricket so you never know … “Meanwhile, Salman Butt, the Pakistan vice-captain, believed that the pool game against India in Durban on September 14 was guaranteed to ensure the team was at their most motivated. “We always have good games against India and we respect them as a good side. They bring out the best in us,” Butt said.

James Franklin sent a message to the New Zealand selectors about his allround ability with an unbeaten 173 against Auckland. His innings contained 22 fours and three sixes and helped Wellington to an imposing 436 for 5 at stumps in reply to Auckland’s 235. Franklin was dropped for the final two one-day internationals against the West Indies after some uninspired bowling and will be keen to press his credentials as an allrounder ahead of the Test series. Franklin was not the only centurion, with Neal Parlane (110) also passing three figures. Matthew Bell (58) and Chris Nevin (48 not out) cashed in as well. Lance Shaw took 3 for 90.Canterbury will take a handy advantage over Northern Districts into the third day of the match after a number of useful contributions enabled them to post a first innings lead of 41 with three wickets remaining. At the top of the order Gary Stead made 51 and Michael Papps a laboured 45. There were cameos from Craig McMillan (23) and Chris Harris (22), before Andrew Ellis (57) and Todd Astle (41) put on 82 for the sixth wicket. Canterbury ended the day on 310 for 7. Joseph Yovich was costly, but his 18 overs also saw him capture 3 for 91.Central Districts were in the box seat at New Plymouth after posting a first-innings total 416 and watching Otago go to stumps at 191 for 5. Central resumed day two on 275 for 6 and made it past 400 thanks to half-centuries from Bevan Griggs, the wicketkeeper, and Brendon Diamanti. David Sewell was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 87. Otago began the long chase for first innings comfortably enough, but trouble struck late in the day when the impressive Jordan Sheed was out 11 shy of his maiden first-class century. Otago’s hopes rested with Neil Broom, who battled to 34 not out. Min Patel, the former England spinner, bowled Otago to a virtual standstill with his 1 for 20 off 18 overs.

Sri Lanka will go for a 3-0 whitewash of the Test series against Bangladesh in the third and final Test starting on July 11 at Kandy’s Asgiriya International Stadium.”That’s the only way to look at it. We’ve played some really good cricket the last two weeks or so and we are 2-0 up in the series. We don’t want to have any hiccups at this stage,” said Mahela Jayawardene.”We want to make sure that we concentrate and play the same brand of cricket and have the result going our way so that it will be good for us going into the one-day series as well as for the season which is coming up for us.”If Sri Lanka win at Kandy, it will be their 50th victory in 170 Test matches. With Chaminda Vaas having returned to England to see out his contract with Middlesex, Jayawardene stated that young all-rounder Farveez Maharoof would fill his vacancy in the team.”Maharoof is our next best in the line up. He deserves his place. He’s one guy who’sperformed really well,” said Jayawardene. “We are also floating with the idea of giving Sujeewa de Silva an opportunity as well since we have wrapped up the series. He deserves an opportunity having performed well. If we take a decision to play him then either Lasith [Malinga] or Dilhara [Fernando] will be rested depending on the amount of cricket they have played and which of them we feel needs a break.”Also set to return for his first Test of the series is opener Upul Tharanga, who has recovered from a fractured left heel. “Upul has been our No.1 choice going into the Test series,” said Jayawardene. “Injury kept him away. Everybody who has been given the opportunity has done well. What we have to realise is we cannot think right now but look to the future. The next six months there is a lot of cricket coming up and Upul’s definitely going to be part of that. He needs to come in as quickly as possible and start playing good cricket and get into the stride. He will definitely play in this Test. We have to make a toughdecision on Michael [Vandort] and Malinda [Warnapura].”Jayawardene said he expected the pitch to be slower than that at the SSC and theSara Stadium but added: “There would probably be a bit of movement as well as carry.I am not sure whether it has the same pace as the Sara Stadium but it will definitely have a little bit more movement given the fact that the conditions here are usually moist.”Mohammad Ashraful, the Bangladesh captain, said he hoped his bad luck with the toss would change in Kandy. “Luck has not gone my way and I am expecting it to change here.”On both occasions he lost the toss, Bangladesh failed to top 100 in their first innings and this had led to the team being defeated by an innings in three days. Bangladesh have made two changes to their side with middle-order batsman Tushar Imran replacing Mehrab Hossain and fast bowler Syed Rasel replacing Mohammad Sharif.Ashraful said that Mehrab was dropped after just one Test because he was not a middle-order batsman but a specialist opener. “Tushar has been scoring runs for the A team as well as in domestic cricket that’s why we got him down early for the final Test.”Bangladesh will hope to avoid their second 3-0 whitewash in history. In their only previous three-Test series they lost to Pakistan.Teams:Sri Lanka from: Upul Tharanga, Michael Vandort, Malinda Warnapura, KumarSangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Chamara Silva, Tillakaratne Dilshan,Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, MuttiahMuralitharan, Sujeewa de Silva.Bangladesh from: Javed Omar, Nafees Ahmed, Rajin Saleh, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Ashraful (capt), Tushar Imran, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Syed Rasel, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Rafique, Shahadat Hossain.

Division One

2nd dayChris Adams struck a belligerent 156 for Sussex who finally declared on an impressive 531 for 6 against Durham at Hove. The visitors then capitulated in their reply – Mushtaq Ahmed picked up 6 for 64, and Jason Lewry 4 for 55 – as Sussex dismissed them for just 150. Phil Mustard top-scored with 58 but there was scant little from his team-mates. Their day didn’t improve when they followed on, either, with Yasir Arafat and Mushtaq picking up two wickets as Durham stare down the barrel, still trailing by 339 runs.Simon Cook made the most of his role as nightwatchman with 71 as Kent and Yorkshire battled out a tight day, reduced by rain, at Headingley. Cook and Robert Key added 80 for the second wicket and then when Cook fell, Martin van Jaarsveld stroked an unbeaten 59. Yorkshire hit back as Deon Kruis took two wickets and Adil Rashid impressed again with two wickets in two balls, which included trapping Dwayne Bravo lbw for a duck.On a stop-start second day at Southampton,Hampshire struggled against Warwickshire who were finally bowled out for 401. In reply Hampshire were indebted to James Adams at the top of the order who batted very patiently while Paul Harris, the South Africa slow-left-armer, took two wickets to stymie Hampshire’s progress. The home side finished some 275 runs behind with seven wickets remaining.1st dayOwais Shah followed up his century in the Pro40 with an unbeaten 73 as Middlesex made a decent start on a slow, and truncated, opening day against Lancashire at Old Trafford. Ed Smith was removed early, trapped lbw by Kyle Hogg, and Middlesex’s progress was turgid on a slow and low surface. Nick Compton took 87 balls to reach double figures before eventually falling just after lunch to Hogg. Shah and Ed Joyce upped the tempo with a third-wicket stand of 58 before Joyce fell to Glen Chapple. Shah was progressing comfortably when rain forced an early tea and didn’t allow any more play.

Division Two

3rd day
No play was possible between Somerset and Glamorgan at Taunton as heavy rain moved through the South West of England.2nd dayA magnificent third-wicket partnership of 170 between Mark Pettini and Ravinder Bopara gave Essex a first innings lead over Surrey on the second day at Colchester.Resuming on 32 for 2 the pair steadied Essex with Bopara the more aggressive of the two, smashing 12 fours and a six – but they both fell in the nineties to give Surrey some hope. James Foster continued their fine efforts, though, in a cautious half-century and received excellent support from James Middlebrook. Essex lead by 69 runs with four wickets remaining.Rain prevented much play at Leicester between Leicestershire and Worcestershire. Gareth Batty fell two short of a fine hundred as the visitors declared on an imposing 456 for 8. In reply, the home side moved to 40 without loss.1st dayJust 30.4 overs were possible on the opening day between Derbyshire and Gloucestershire at Derby. The home side made a fine start, reducing Gloucestershire to 5 for 2 and they claimed their first bowling point when Steffan Jones shifted Phil Weston moments before the rain arrived. Jon Lewis made his way the ground after being omitted at The Oval but his services have not been needed yet.

After a season which he will want to forget, Stephen Fleming at least had the solace of ending on a high with an innings victory over Sri Lanka. But no sooner had the dust settled on the Wellington Test then he was being asked about the tour of Zimbabwe in August.”If the information that I read suggests it’s not wise to go and that will make a difference, then that’s something I’ll consider,” Fleming told reporters, hinting that it is far from certain that he will make the trip. “Like the other players I’ll be reading a lot, watching the situation closely and trying to educate myself on what impact the tour will have. The players will take a lot of care over the decision and make sure it’s the right one in their mind for the right reasons.”But while the Zimbabwe tour will take centre stage in the coming weeks, yesterday Fleming was happy to dwell on a rare success. “It’s a special victory about coming back from the canvas to get some perspective on the whole summer,” he explained. “That was the goal of this series and it was rewarding. It was special for the young guys who have only experienced Test defeats. We were just happy to be in a commanding position and enjoying the fact we had a team under pressure for once this summer … we’d been under the pump for so long we forget how to enjoy the game. This game we made a pact to enjoy it and that shone through today. It was a pretty flat wicket. It was a good effort to bowl them out in a day’s play.”Fleming will be flying to England to join Nottinghamshire in the next few days.

Cricket Australia has admitted that it is powerless to prevent scalpers from selling Ashes tickets on eBay, attacking the online auction site for refusing to take action off its own back.James Sutherland, the board’s under-fire CEO, lambasted people selling tickets, accusing them of “exploiting the public’s passion for the game,” and adding that he was “disgusted”. He said that while eBay had been asked to help, “their response has been, ‘It’s not our problem'”.But while Cricket Australia was powerless to act, it seems that punters have taken matters into their own hands, deliberately sabotaging auctions for tickets. A quick check of the site showed that many of the sales had receiving grossly inflated bids from newly-registered members, a surefire sign that people were bidding with no intention other than to scupper genuine bidders.A spokesman of eBay defended the company’s position, saying: “We don’t actually sell the tickets. We provide a marketplace where the buyers and sellers can transact.”Sutherland called for all sports to consider uniting to press for national anti-scalping legislation.But while Cricket Australia has been slammed for the way it handled the ticket sales, it is laughing all the way to the bank. On the first day of sales, more than $13.5 million was handed over by supporters, and CA will take about 30% of that, with the balance going to the individual states.

Mark Taylor has joined a growing number of Australian players to back Ricky Ponting as captain despite the “over-reaction” to the Ashes loss. Taylor, who was in charge when Australia became world champions in 1995, said the defeat “may be the making” of Ponting after Dennis Lillee called for his sacking.”We’ve seen Ricky Ponting and the Australian side winning everything,” Taylor told , “but sometimes you need a loss to sit down and say ‘what can I do, what can we do as a leadership group do to make things better?’ If you can turn it around you can bounce back and become a better leader.”As most of the squad returned to Australia yesterday, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Michael Kasprowicz believed Ponting should continue as leader. A report in said Ponting also had the support of Bob Merriman, the Cricket Australia chairman, and at least five members of the board.The paper said a review of the tour had already begun with Taylor, Allan Border and Daryl Foster, the bowling coach, investigating all aspects of the trip as well as looking into Australian cricket at all levels. Taylor said there was always going to be an over-reaction to the series loss and was not surprised by the mood.However, Taylor said both Ponting and Michael Vaughan did not show enough imagination with their tactical decisions during the series. “To be critical, I thought both captains at times were either full-on or full-off,” Taylor said in . “It was either four slips, two gullies and a bat-pad or no slips, deep point, deep third man, deep backward square, deep fine leg.””One of the things you don’t want to do is panic in a situation like this,” Kasprowicz said in . While the future of Ponting is safe Kasprowicz, who played in two Tests and took four wickets, is waiting for news from Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors.”[Hohns] said straight: `I can’t tell you where things sit. We just don’t know yet’,” Kasprowicz said. Decisions will be made quickly as the Super Series starts in three weeks.

Rawalpindi were strongly placed despite a valiant fight back by Karachi Blues on the second day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Grade-I Cricket Championship match at the UBL Sports Complex here on Monday.The home side ended the day on 106 for three in their first innings in reply to Rawalpindi’s 360. Opener Maisam Hasnain batted responsibly for an unbeaten 27 in almost three hours. Giving him company at the crease was skipper Farhan Adil with 15.Karachi Blues, however, dominated the first half of the day when they claimed Rawalpindi’s remaining seven wickets for 94 runs after the visitors had resumed at 259 for three.Test reject Mohammad Wasim was undone by a fine outswinger from Tanvir Ahmed, who had the upright right-hander caught at the wicket with the second new ball. Wasim added only four to his overnight score of 38.Shahid Javed, the other overnight batsman, collected another 19 runs before he was deceived by an armer from Salman Fazal and was bowled for 82 with the total on 323. Shahid, whose knock lasted 306 minutes, faced 250 deliveries and hit seven fours.All-rounder Yasir Arafat made a brisk 36 off 44 balls with five boundaries in 71 minutes until he edged Salman Fazal to Faisal Iqbal at slip. The other notable scorer on Monday was ex-Test spinner Shakeel Ahmed with 20.Tanvir Ahmed and Tabish Nawab captured three wickets apiece while Imranullah and Salman took two each.Karachi Blues were off to a poor start when left-handed Zafar Jadoon was taken at first slip by Shahid Javed off left-arm pacer Mohammad Ghufran for five.Shortly afterwards Ghufran took his second scalp of an impressive opening spell. Asim Kamal, the left-handed one-down batsman, played away from his body to a widish delivery and was superbly held in the gully by Tasawwar Hussain for 16.Faisal Iqbal, fresh from his double century against Sargodha last week, was a victim of the unpredictable behaviour of the pitch. He tried to play left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmed off the backfoot but was shocked to see the ball skidding through just above ankle height to strike his pad right in front of the stumps. He made 23 off 55 balls with a solitary boundary.Luckily for Karachi Blues, Maisam and Farhan negotiated the remaining 74 minutes of play to lift the score from 69 for three without being parted.

Former international umpire Ram Babu Gupta has died in London, aged 72. He officiated in 11 Tests and 24 ODIs from 1985 to 1990.Conveying his condolences, BCCI president Sharad Pawar said, “He was one of our best umpires ever. It is an irreplaceable loss.” Gupta remains the only Indian to have umpired a World Cup final; he stood in the 1987 final in Kolkata along with Pakistan’s Mahboob Shah.Rajan Mehra, a Test umpire during the mid-eighties, told the , “Gupta made remarkable progress as an umpire. I was his senior but always admired his officiating. He was very popular and quite a competent umpire. He was known to make fewer mistakes.”Gupta also officiated in the famous Chepauk Test in 1988 when legspinner Narendra Hirwani took 16 wickets against West Indies on his debut. Gupta’s last international appearance was in a one-dayer in Sharjah in May 1990.He was also president of the Delhi District Cricket Association for one year and served as its treasurer for eight years.