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West Indies’ dismal efforts in the Super Eights have brought calls for change from fans and experts alike. Michael Holding suggested Brian Lara should quit as captain and Colin Croft called the situation “desperate” after the home team lost three in a row, including Sunday’s 113-run defeat by Sri Lanka.Croft said Sri Lanka inflicted the most comprehensive thrashing the West Indies had endured in a long time. “It was terrible and like all the West Indian supporters and former players, this hurts terribly,” Croft wrote in the .”I don’t think that the West Indies have anything special about them now. I cannot remember seeing a team look so poor on the field. Times are now decidedly desperate for the West Indies cricket team, and this has nothing to do with the World Cup. The West Indies team, based on what I saw on Sunday, is in a very bad state.”Holding said there was only one course of action that would bring positive change. “Lara has to step aside, not necessarily as a player, but as captain,” he said. “He appears bigger than the game. He has got whatever he has wanted.”We haven’t seen an improvement when he has taken over the captaincy. Everyone knows he’s a great batsman but that’s not what it takes to lead a team. I can’t even say he is a good captain tactically.”Croft agreed that Lara’s leadership was probably not working. “It is very obvious that the West Indies players are either not reacting positively to the captain or that they are not as good as the people that have selected them think,” he wrote.Fans have also joined in the calls to take the reins away from Lara after their hopes were raised by an unbeaten run in the group matches. “What we are getting is simply not good enough,” Lindon Albert, a fan who watched the latest West Indies loss from a bar in Bridgetown, told .”I don’t see them winning another game. This is over for us. Lara should go, he should retire from the game. He is a great batsman but his leadership is weak.”Timothy Daniel, another supporter in the same bar, also wants Lara gone. “In all my days I’ve never seen us as bad as this – we can’t take this any more,” he shouted across the room. “Time for a change. We have to get rid of Lara. He looks lost, he looks rusty.”Sean Clarke, who listened to the game from Brown’s Beach, outside Bridgetown, was more philosophical. “Another rough ride,” he said. “I’m not surprised. I sort of expected us to lose. We’re not a strong team.”

One man can seldom make the difference in a three-match Test series,especially one who hasn’t always lived up to lofty expectations. ButShoaib Malik, Pakistan’s captain, was in little doubt as to where thisseries against India would be won and lost. Shoaib Akhtar is effectivelyon probation after his antics in the build-up to the Twenty20 World Cup, butMalik believes that he could well be the X-factor that decides this mostkeenly fought of cricket contests.”If we’re to win the series, Shoaib and Danish [Kaneria] will have a vitalrole to play,” said Malik on the eve of the game. “Shoaib’s fitness levelis good. He’s our trump card for sure.”Malik disputed the assertion that Shoaib hadn’t really found his rhythm inthe one-day series. “He was in rhythm,” he said. “He was consistentlybowling at 150-plus [kph]. It was I who asked him to bowl with a shorterrun-up because we had some problems with time [slow over-rate].”The allegedly slow nature of the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch could draw thesting out of Pakistani pace, but Malik wasn’t too perturbed by the 22yards. “Whatever cricket we’ve seen recently, even on spinning tracks, thefast bowlers have done well,” he said. “So we’re not too worried.”They will be worried about the back injury that has ruled Umar Gul out of this Test. Gul missed over a year of cricket with stress fractures of the back between 2004 and 2006, but the injury is not thought to be serious. “He has a stress pain in the back. He consulted an orthopaedic surgeon during the day and had a scan done. It is not a serious injury but we have decided to rest him as a precautionary measure”, Pakistan’s media manager Ahsan Malik said.That should mean a Test debut for Sohail Tanvir, though it’s likely to beMohammad Sami who shares the new ball with Shoaib. Despite the failure ofthe four-bowler plan against South Africa, Pakistan are likely to resistthe temptation to play Abdur Rehman.Malik was confident that Kaneria could match the Indian spinners. “Iwouldn’t say either team has the edge in the spin department,” he said.”Anil [Kumble], Harbhajan [Singh] and Murali Kartik are all very goodspinners. We have Danish. But our main strength is our pace bowling.”India’s pace department has been considerably weakened by the injuries to Sreesanthand RP Singh, but Malik was taking nothing for granted in the build-up tothe game. “They have called up Munaf Patel, and they already have ZaheerKhan in the team,” he said. “Their spin attack is strong. There might besome change in their plans but it’s still a strong attack.”Ever since Saeed Anwar retired from the international arena, Pakistan havestruggled to find a semblance of consistency at the top of the order, butMalik stressed that there would be no experimentation before the firstgame of the series. “We have two openers [Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed] inthe squad and both of them will play.”Following the reverse in the one-day series, much had been said,especially back home in Pakistan, about the lack of spirit within the teamand the captain’s inability to rouse his men. Malik scoffed at suchsuggestions. “Things have been said because we lost,” he said brusquely.”If we had won, none of these issues would have been raised.”Though it counted for little in the larger scheme of things, he was happyat the manner in which Pakistan had approached the dead rubber in Jaipur.”We’d already lost the series, but the way we played was veryencouraging,” he said. “Whenever you win, it’s good for the morale.”For Malik, it will be his second bilateral series as captain, while hiscounterpart, Anil Kumble, leads India in a Test for the first time at theage of 37. “Each day you learn something when you play cricket,” saidMalik when asked whether the difference in experience would be a factor.”He has so much experience that I don’t think it’ll make a big differenceto him.”Pakistan haven’t lost a Test series on Indian soil since Asif Iqbal’steam lost 2-0 in 1979. Malik called that little statistic a powerfulsource of motivation, and his underdog side appear quietly confident ofupsetting the odds yet again in a contest that means just a little bitmore than any other.Pakistan (likely) 1 Salman Butt, 2 Yasir Hameed, 3 Younis Khan,4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Shoaib Malik (capt), 6 Misbah-ul-Haq, 7 Kamran Akmal(wk), 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Mohammad Sami, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 DanishKaneria.

After weeks of speculation, it has been confirmed that Darrell Hair will not stand in the Champions Trophy in India next month.”Darrell Hair will not umpire the ICC Champions Trophy on the basis of safety and security concerns,” Brian Murgatroyd, the ICC’s media manager, said. “An announcement on the appointment of officials for that tournament will be made in due course.”Asked if this was nothing more than a convenient get-out, Muragtroyd replied: “Not as far as I am aware”.Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, issued a press statement in which he said: “A decision has been made in consultation with the ICC president Percy Sonn, the ICC general manager of cricket David Richardson and myself that he will not umpire at the Champions Trophy amid concerns over his safety and security and also the safety and security of those around him during the tournament.”

Phil Jaques, the New South Wales opening batsman, doing a county stint with Worcestershire, is in Australia to play the Top End Series featuring A teams from New Zealand, Pakistan, India and Australia.Looking to this winter’s Ashes, Jaques felt that, if given a chance, he is ready to play a big part in the series. He played his only Test against South Africa at Melbourne last December and said that it was unfortunate that he played behind Justin Langer and Mathew Hayden – “the most successful partnership in history”.”My timing is not great from that point of view,” Jaques told . “But I have to bide my time and score as many runs as I can to keep the pressure on. Every time I walk out to the middle now, I’m trying to score a big hundred and make a statement.”Jaques is averaging 102 for Worcestershire with three centuries from six matches and scored a double hundred in the county’s innings victory over Northamptonshire in June.”This spell at Worcester is great for me. I wanted to work on my game. The pitch at Worcester seams around and it’s never easy to play. That was an attraction. I wanted to test myself. If I can tighten up my game and take it to the next level before the Ashes, then brilliant.” Jaques will be returning to play for the county this month after the Top End Series.”It would be terrific to be involved with the Ashes. It’s the biggest series ever from an Australian point of view. We definitely like beating the English, and you saw last summer they like getting one over on us.”Jaques is certain that Australia are looking for revenge. “Everything is geared up to make sure we hit England with everything we have got.”

Only 20 minutes were possible in today’s scheduled second day of the Otago-Northern Districts Shell Trophy match at Carisbrook in Dunedin today.Steady overnight rain turned to drizzle for much of the day and it wasn’t until four hours after the usual start time of 10.30am that play started.In the time available, Northern Districts added nine runs without the loss of their last wicket to go into the third day tomorrow on 232/9.

ScorecardFast bowlers Syed Sahabuddin and D Kalyankrishna demolished Saurashtra for 87 as Andhra took control on the second day at Rajkot. Both bowlers shared all ten wickets to fall as Sahabuddin ended with figures of 7 for 37. Opener Kanaiya Vaghela was the only batsman to offer some resistance, scoring 30 off 134 balls, as the innings was wrapped up as early as the 46th over. The Andhra batting too wobbled, as Sandeep Jobanputra and Sandip Maniar took two wickets each to reduce them to 87 for 4 at stumps. However, Andhra were still in a strong position, ahead by 215 runs.
ScorecardRajasthan were in deep trouble in reply to Maharashtra’s imposing total of 527 for 5 declared, losing four quick wickets at the end of the day. Dheeraj Jadhav continued the good work from the first day going on to 171 while Hrishikesh Kanitkar, overnight on 93, was unlucky to fall three short of his century. Sreedharan Sriram, who moved from Tamil Nadu this season, helped himself to a century and his stand of 109 with Yogesh Takwale, helped push the score towards 500. Rajasthan lost the important wicket of Vikram Solanki early as Maharashtra’s opening bowlers, Anupam Sanclecha and Aditya Dole, made early inroads.
ScorecardKarnataka’s batsmen had a decent outing in the second day at Kanpur, edging ahead of Uttar Pradesh’s first-innings score of 264 by 32 runs with three wickets in hand. Karnataka could have ended the day in a stronger position had the batsmen converted their starts. Barrington Rowland was dismissed shortly after reaching his half-century while the middle order, including captain Yere Goud looked set to reach their respective fifties before giving it away. Mohammad Kaif, fresh from his 91, contributed with the ball as well, picking up two wickets. Earlier, R Vinay Kumar wrapped up the UP innings with a five-wicket haul.
ScorecardBoosted by Mayank Tehlan’s unbeaten ton, Delhi made a strong reply to Baroda’s total, leading by 12 with seven wickets in hand. Tehlan, cousin of Virender Sehwag, came in at the fall of Aakash Chopra’s wicket early and added 55 with Shikhar Dhawan for the second wicket. Mithun Manhas, the captain, also had a good outing in the middle, scoring a half century and his stand of 135 with Tehlan helped Delhi seize the initiative. Tehlan’s second first-class century included 15 boundaries, while Manhas’s knock of 70 included 10 fours.
ScorecardAfter posting 287 with much effort, Haryana ended the day in a good position reducing Tamil Nadu to 80 for 3. After a dull first day, in which the Haryana batsmen crawled at less than two an over, Amit Mishra injected some life with a fluent 50 off 78 balls. The Tamil Nadu spinners, C Suresh and R Ashwin took four wickets each and toiled for 46 and 48 overs respectively as the tail – in particular Gaurav Vashisht who made 6 off 75 balls – gritted it out. Openers M Vijay and S Anirudha got Tamil Nadu off to a good start with a stand of 60 but lost three quick wickets to peg them back.
ScorecardAfter bundling out Hyderabad for 205, Gujarat rounded off another good day as their batsmen, led by Niraj Patel’s unbeaten 109 and Azharuddin Bhilakia’s half century, ended at 225 for 2. Patel, the left-handed batsman who’s been a consistent performer in the last few seasons, added 141 with opener Bilakhia , who made an obdurate 72. They came together after the fall of the first wicket at 35 and took the score to 176 as Hyderabad struggled to get a breakthrough. Patel faced 210 balls in his knock which included 11 fours. Arjun Yadav and Kaushik Reddy were the only successful bowlers for Hyderabad.
ScorecardPankaj Dharmani, Punjab’s most experienced campaigner, carved out a solid 144 to take his side to 353 against Mumbai at Mohali. Resuming on 220 for 6, Dharmani batted till the end, as the Mumbai bowlers struggled to mop up the tail. Ishan Malhatra added 45 with Dharmani for the seventh wicket; Gagandeep Singh frustrated the bowlers even more with a 90-ball 24. Swapnil Hazare, the fast bowler, bagged the last three wickets to finish with a five-wicket haul. In reply, Mumbai ended the day at 21 for no loss.

S Badrinath has been retained as Tamil Nadu’s captain for the coming Ranji season. Apart from Badrinath and Dinesh Karthik, Tamil Nadu will have a largely inexperienced squad, with only five players who have played more than 10 first-class matches. L Balaji, the former Test medium-fast bowler, has been left out of the squad that was picked for the first two matches. The management plans to ease him back into competitive cricket as the season progresses.Even among the experienced players, Badrinath, Karthik and Yo Mahesh will be the first targets for India A teams, if not the national team in the case of the former two. Offspinner R Ashwin, who has taken 34 wickets in the five matches he has played, might be the one to lead in their absence.In the absence of T Kumaran, who was one of the seven players to have joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL), the pace attack will have to be spearheaded by Mahesh. C Ganapathy, the right-arm medium-pacer and Ramadoss Naresh, the left-arm medium-pacer, are the two other experienced pacers. Murali Vijay, the right-hand opener, who impressed in his debut season last year, will be the main hope in the batting department, along with Badrinath, Karthik and S Anirudha, who played in the Challenger Trophy.Squad: S Badrinath (capt), M Vijay, S Anirudha, Dinesh Karthik, Kuthethurshri Vasudevadas, R Prasanna, R Ashwin, C Ganapathy, V Yo Mahesh, R Naresh, R Srinivasan, P Amarnath, R Ramkumar, Abhinav Mukund and KH Gopinath

David Hussey, the Victoria batsman, may have been purchased for US$625,000 by the Kolkata franchise in the Indian Premier League’s auction, but his county side Nottinghamshire have insisted he is contracted to play for them this season. Hussey’s participation in the IPL, which runs from April 18 to June 1, would mean he misses the first five County Championship matches and eight games in the Friends Provident Trophy.Mike Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, said: “We are currently talking to David and his advisors, so I would prefer not to comment at this stage other than to say that he signed a new two-year contract with us after the end of last season.”Hussey was one of the surprise buys at the IPL auction, being picked up well above his initial base price of $125,000. He even outdid his more famous brother, the Test player Michael, who went for $350,000. Unlike Michael, David was reportedly available for the entire tournament, which perhaps was one of the reasons why he sold for a higher price than the likes of Ricky Ponting and Matthew HaydenMeanwhile, Justin Langer, the former Australian Test opener, has indicated he will play for Somerset and won’t turn out for the Jaipur franchise. Langer collected his base price of $200,000, but Jaipur paid only $75,000 for him, with the Indian board covering the difference.”I have made a commitment to Somerset and I intend to honour it,” Langer told the . “I made that clear when I first signed with IPL and I have no hesitation sticking to it.”Langer fears the IPL will damage the game. “When you go to your grave,” he said, “people will remember what you did with your life rather than how much money you made.”The newspaper also reported Luke Ronchi, the Western Australia wicketkeeper, is considering an A$100,000 (approx US$92,000) offer to join the Mumbai franchise, while his team-mate Luke Pomersbach, who earned a car park call-up to play a Twenty20 international for Australia, is also set to join an IPL team. The Mumbai franchise failed to buy a wicketkeeper-batsman at the auction held on Wednesday.

At the working committee meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, two more nails, perhaps the final ones, were drilled into the coffin of Jagmohan Dalmiya, the former president of the Indian board and the ICC.In a move that is widely being interpreted as a switching of loyalties, Brijesh Patel, a staunch Dalmiya loyalist, was given a post on a BCCI committee. And perhaps more damningly, the representative of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), Saradindu Pal, said that his association respected the board’s decision to expel Dalmiya.”The CAB’s secretary (Pal) told the board’s working committee today that the CAB respects the board’s decision (taken at Jaipur on December 16) by 29 votes in favour to expel Mr Dalmiya,” N Srinivasan, the board’s treasurer, and a man seen to be one of the driving forces behind the current regime’s efforts to see the back of Dalmiya, told reporters in Mumbai.”He [Pal] also said that Mr Dalmiya no longer functions as its president and an emergency meeting has been convened on the 27th (January) to take steps to implement the BCCI’s decision,” Srinivasan said. With this, it appears that Dalmiya’s fate in cricket administration in India is all but sealed, for the moment, at least.Equally significant was the fact that Patel, the former Test batsman and currently president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, was named on a BCCI committee. Outside of Bengal he was one of the few Dalmiya loyalists, and it was no coincidence that he was the only prominent member of the board not to get a posting in any of the board’s 20-odd committees in the last AGM.Patel is on the newly formed committee that will decide on how to disburse the funds the BCCI has allocated towards the development of other sports in India. He is joined on this committee by MP Pandove of Punjab and Major SS Alhuwalia from the Services. It’s worth noting that no Ranji matches of either Karnataka or Bengal were to be telecast live when the BCCI announced its plans for the coverage of the current domestic season. Karnataka remains one of the marquee teams in the domestic competition and Bengal were runners-up last year, and yet it was decided that none of their games would be shown live.Patel’s return to the fold helped along by the fact that a committee needed to be formed to decide on the requests from Abhinav Bindra, the shooter, and Karan Rastogi the Indian Davis Cup team member and upcoming tennis star, seeking financial assistance from the BCCI. The board had received these requests in writing from the players themselves and not through the respective sporting federations. It was then decided that the financial assistance would be disbursed directly to players who were in with a chance of Olympic medals. Although no formal policy has been laid down by the BCCI on how this will happen, the formation of a committee to deliberate on the issue is the first step towards concrete action.With regard to more routine matters, it was decided cricket will not be a part of the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi. The working committee meeting of the board cited the Indian team’s packed fixtures as the main reason. “The working committee discussed the invitation to take part in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and felt that the Future Tours Programme as it stands now is too crowded and would not lend itself to participate in the Games,” Srinivasan said.The meeting also decided to form a committee to finalise the parameters for the players’ contracts. The committee comprises Inderjit Singh Bindra, president of the Punjab Cricket Association, Shashank Manohar, vice-president of the board, Niranjan Shah, honorary secretary of the BCCI, Ratnakar Shetty, the administrative head and Srinivasan. “At this moment I can’t say what the parameters will be but we will try to find the right balance,” said Srinivasan. “The board members were concerned with the performance of the team and felt that players should be motivated to do well.”The meeting also did not discuss the nomination of Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, for the post of ICC president. However, Cricinfo has learned that the BCCI is “more likely to nominate than not nominate” Pawar for the post, by the January 1, 2007 deadline, in the words of a source. When the BCCI held the CK Nayudu awards on November 4, the same day it inaugurated its new offices at the Wankhede Stadium, representatives of appoximately 20 associate members of the ICC were invited to attend and a “majority” of them accepted and were present.

The ICC, under fire from a number of direction for its handling of the World Cup, received a broadside from Niranjan Shah, the Indian board secretary, for becoming “more and more bureaucratic” and costing its members money by “unnecessarily employing so many people”.In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Shah hinted that it was possible that Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, might face an unprecedented no-confidence motion at the next meeting of the executive board in June.”It is something we will discuss with our board,” Shah said. “Some of it will depend on how other boards are feeling. It is fair to say that there are quite a few things to sort out at the next chief executives’ meeting.”While the relationship between the ICC and the Indian board has been frosty, the stinging attacks on the way the World Cup has been organised may well turn out to be the watershed.”We are not that satisfied,” Shah told the newspaper. “It is becoming more and more bureaucratic. My board is of the belief that cricket is a simple, enjoyable game, but that is not how it appears at present.”The ICC has so many staff members. It is unnecessarily employing so many people and that costs the other members. The ICC should move away from the bureaucracy and become more simplified. They should be concentrating more on the game.”Shah’s comments were backed by Lalit Modi, the BCCI’s vice-president, who called on Speed to be replaced by someone from Africa or Asia who “understands the problems of a majority of ICC members”.