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Martin Suji, Kenya’s veteran fast bowler who has been suffering with a serious knee injury, has been asked to help the national squad prepare for their forthcoming ICC Intercontinental Cup and ODIs.Suji, 36, has not played a representative match for 19 months and there must now be serious doubts whether he will play again. But in the meantime, he will help Alfred Njuguna to coach the team until a long-term replacement for Roger Harper can be identified. He has some coaching experience with the title-winning Kanbis side.Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya’s chairman, told Cricinfo that Suji could bring much to the table in terms of his vast experience and that he had “plenty to give back to the game”.

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

The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) has refused to rule out the possibility of England’s leading players joining the Indian Premier League (IPL). Only Dimitri Mascarenhas has so far signed up to the IPL, while the likes of Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen have poured water on suggestions that they and their team-mates could be lured to the IPL by money.Currently, the IPL clashes with England’s county season but Lalit Modi, its chairman, maintains his willingness to shift the dates of future tournaments in order to accommodate English players. The ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, strongly believes that England’s players would rather play for their country than an Indian franchise, but Sean Morris, the PCA chief executive, is aware of the need for a balance.”We will ask the players how they feel,” he said. “We need to sit them down and ask their personal views – some might have different opinions to others. But I would like to think on behalf of the players we would be able to take advantage of this concept and allow them to reap the benefits.”There may be a very strong collective view but there may also be different circumstances for each individual which would affect their decision. We have a very open dialogue with the ECB right now, we met this week and will be meeting with them again next week, so there is a strong channel of communication.”Mr Modi is saying that he’s prepared to move his tournament to accommodate English players and that is music to everyone’s ears in this country.”The issue the PCA are trying to address with the ECB is the potential restriction of employment.”Their priority is England, they’ve all said that,” Morris said. “But I just hope we can come to a point where they’re comfortable with their arrangement with the ECB as their employers and take advantage of the increase in income into the game, because you’re a long time retired.”Restricting employees anywhere will cause friction in a relationship – over a period of time that will break it down.”Meanwhile Dougie Brown, the PCA chairman, insisted that for all the players’ loyalty to England, “IPL is not something that is going to go away – it’s going to be around for 10 years” and the ECB need to act sharply.”So we have to compartmentalise it within our own calendar, create a window of opportunity, or it will be a precarious situation that the ECB will find themselves in. You might find guys coming to the end of their careers will not sign a central contract, they will go and sign with the IPL instead. Suddenly you will be losing people a couple of years earlier than you might have.”

Kent captain Matthew Fleming claimed four wickets to inspire a late Kent comeback against Yorkshire.Bad light stopped play five overs prior to the scheduled first day close with the Tykes on 365 for seven – yet the visitors had been in fine shape on 327 for two just 73 minutes earlier.After winning the toss, the white rose county took advantage of a sublime St Lawrence pitch and a short leg-side boundary on the lime tree side of the ground to punish Kent’s injury-hit attack.After the early loss of Simon Widdup, Vaughan – the only one on Yorkshire’s three representatives appearing in this game to have also played in last week’s series winning Test against The West Indies, started the run glut with a stylish 69 in almost three hours.He finally went to an excellent catch by Rahul Dravid at second slip to give Fleming the first of his four for 77 return, leaving Anthony McGrath to add a further 195 for the third wicket in partnership with Australian Darren Lehmann.Scoring at almost five an over McGrath notched 14 fours and a six on his way to a 181-ball hundred.Lehmann, who has past 50 in his last six championship innings, was even quicker to three figures needing just 89 balls to reach his fourth century of the championship summer.With the Yorkshire score on 330, Fleming removed McGrath to a catch at the wicket and then ended Lehmann’s stay to a leg-side catch also by Nixon.Gary Fellows followed in similar fashion in Fleming’s next over, then David Byas and Simon Guy both went cheaply to Martin Saggers and David Masters respectively to give Kent a second valuable bowling bonus point in their quest to stay out of the relegation zone.

Sunil Gavaskar renewed his verbal rivalry with Dennis Lillee, blaming him for an infamous walkout during the 1981 Melbourne Test “It was triggered by personal abuse on Lillee’s part,” said Gavaskar.After being adjudged dubiously lbw, Gavaskar said that he further faced abusive comments from Lillee. In protest, Gavaskar almost led his opening partner Chetan Shauhan off the field before being placated at the boundary by wing commander SA Durrani, the team manager.”If you look at the video, I am walking towards the pavilion. I turned backonly on hearing the abuse and then took Chauhan away,” Gavaskar told .”Had there been no abuse, I would have vented my anger out in the dressing-room. I expressed my regret about the incident then itself and againduring the Cowdrey lecture.”In the lecture, Gavaskar had accused Australia for harming the game’s image with their sledging. In response, Lillee had stated: “I think it’s funny coming from someone who took his bat and went home when an umpire’s decision went against him.”Sledging has gone on since WG Grace and it will go on as long as any sport is played, not just cricket,” Lillee had said. “If they think it’s too bad, the authorities are there to stop it.”Gavaskar warned that players may come to blows if personal abuse was not stopped immediately. “Those who are defending sledging are those who practice it,” said Gavaskar”If personal abuse is part of the game, then it’s a different game thatI’ve played. The West Indian players never did it. Courtney Walsh, the world’s highest wicket-taker, never uttered a word,” Gavaskar added. “They may have induldged in eyeball-to-eyeball tussles, but that’s not the same as personal abuse. That’s not what the fans want to see.”Gavaskar did, however, agree with Lillee that his brother-in-law Gundappa Viswanath was a better batsman than him. “I agree with Lillee that Vishy was better,” Gavaskar said. “In fact, I’m on record about this and I repeat that Vishy was the best batsman of my generation because of the quality of the bowling that he faced and the conditions under which he made runs.”

Lancashire have reappointed Warren Hegg as their captain for the 2004 season. Hegg, 35, made his debut for Lancashire in 1986, and has skippered them for the last two years. In 2003 Lancashire finished as runners-up in the County Championship, and won the Second Division of the one-day National League.Next year Hegg, who kept wicket for England in two Tests in Australia in 1998-99, will lead a team bolstered by the recruitment of the England allrounder Dominic Cork from Derbyshire. Hegg said today: “I’m thrilled that the club have decided to award me the captaincy again. It’s a huge honour to lead the team and I’m looking forward to a successful season next year.”

Durham’s captain Jon Lewis has been awarded a benefit year in 2004. He joined Durham in 1997 after seven years with Essex.”It’s been great to be involved with Durham for the last eight seasons and watch how the club has developed,” he said. “Hopefully I will be around for a few more years to see the continued expansion of cricket in Durham.”

England’s hopes of giving all their squad a decent practice against Namibia have been thwarted after local officials refused a request to allow 14 players to take part in each of the two warm-up matches at Windhoek.Although this kind of situation has happened on recent England tours – not always to the appreciation of local players and officials – the Namibian Cricket Association were having none of it."We want to play a proper, 11-a-side match and I know our supporters would want the same. We’re expecting a capacity crowd of 4,000," explained Francois Erasmus, the association’s chairman. "If England want to give everybody a game, they will have to use the three players who don’t appear on Sunday in Tuesday’s second match.""We wanted to play a normal 11-a-side game of cricket,” Deon Kotze, Namibia’s captain, told the Press Association. "It’s the biggest match we’ve ever played in and possibly even bigger than the World Cup because we’re playing this at home. It’s the first time we’ve ever had a team of the standing of England playing in Namibia.”The last – and only – time Namibia played England was in the 2003 World Cup when they took considerable credit despite losing; indeed, at one point they were ahead on Duckworth-Lewis before England rallied. “We enjoyed watching our young players bat and get us into a position when we were on course to win the game," Kotze reflected. "There was actually a bit of panic going through the English ranks, but unfortunately it didn’t last long enough.”And unfortunately for Namibia, they have not been given the chance to progress since then. Ahead of the World Cup they gained valuable experience by taking part in South Africa’s domestic competitions, but a restructuring of those tournaments brought that to an end.Their only major games of late have been in the Intercontinental Cup when they were eliminated by Kenya.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has welcomed the compromise agreement between Ten Sports and ARY over the broadcasting rights dispute that had threatened to disrupt coverage of the game in Pakistan. Both channels had jointly won the rights to telecast Pakistan cricket until 2008 – paying a total of US$43 million – and they settled their differences in the Lahore High Court.”We welcome the compromise between the Ten Sports and ARY and appreciate their gesture for withdrawing their litigations from the court,” said Shaharyar Khan, PCB chairman, quoted in . “This compromise will enable smooth and unhindered television coverage of the upcoming tri-nation series,” he added, referring to the seven-match ODI series which Pakistan will play against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.Ten Sports and ARY filed their compromise proposals before a High Court judge on Monday, and agreed to arbitration to settle their differences. Munir Sheikh, a retired judge, will attempt to find a solution once the current series is over.”I express my appreciation to the representatives of both the TV channels for their cooperation and flexibility in arriving this compromise,” said Shaharyar. The dispute between Ten Sports and ARY was just one of many issues that have plagued cricket broadcasting in South East Asia in recent times. Across the border, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has yet to arrive at a satisfactory solution to their own imbroglio, having cancelled the tender which was initially awarded to the Zee network.

Scorecard

At 127 for 3 off 16.3 overs, needing 20 more off 21 deliveries to triumph in a Twenty20, most would have gone with the Mumbai Champs to cruise to a convincing win. But two quick wickets from Andre Adams sparked the Tigers back into the hunt; another five fell in the space of three overs, and even if No. 11 Avinash Yadav’s attempt for the third run off the final ball had been successful, the Champs would have fallen short by the one run instead of the two.If it was his bowling at the death that snatched the win, Adams had earlier provided the much-needed thrust at the end during his team’s innings to set up a competitive target. Kolkata Tigers choose to bat, and got the momentum going with openers Subhomoy Das and Lance Klusener hitting four fours in the first two overs.But after West Indian Tino Best removed Klusener in the fourth over, things went quiet for the Tigers. Subhomoy fell to Ranjit Khirid, and when Michael Kasprowicz dismissed Craig McMillan for 8, the side were 62 for 3 at almost the halfway stage of their innings.Abhishek Jhunjhunwala made a 29-ball 33 but at 93 for 4 after 14 overs, the Tigers needed at least ten an over from then on to post a challenging total. Rohan Gavaskar kept the score ticking during his unbeaten 41 off 36, and it was Adam’s cameo 12-ball 21 that ensured the Tigers reached 146. Sixteen of those runs came off the final over by Best, in which Adams struck two sixes.Soon after Adams struck again, with the ball, removing former Sri Lanka international Saman Jayantha for a duck. But the next partnership, and a blazing fifty from Raviraj Patil, set up the platform for the chase. Patil smacked 52 off 31 deliveries, with eight fours and two sixes, and by the time his fusillade was over, the Champs looked on course, needing 71 more with a little over half the overs remaining.Nathan Astle, the Champs captain, almost put the Tigers out of the game when he began the final flourish with two sixes off Adams in the 17th over, but another run down the track only saw him being bowled by his fellow New Zealander, and opened the door for the Tigers to fight back.Johan van der Wath fell in the same over, and the remainder of the Champs batting line-up couldn’t keep their head to get a run a ball in the final three overs, bowled by Nantie Hayward and Adams. They panicked, three perished to run-outs – although the last being an optimistic try – as they fell prey to the pressure applied by the Tigers.