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ESPNcricinfo previews the first ODI between New Zealand and Pakistan at Wellington

The Preview by Nitin Sundar21-Jan-2011

Match Facts

January 22, Wellington

Start time 14:00 (01.00 GMT)
Misbah-ul-Haq’s calmness gives way to Shahid Afridi’s effervescence at the helm for Pakistan•AFP

Big Picture

Pakistan are in a pleasantly unfamiliar position, that of beginning a series as the favourites. In their last two one-day series, they managed to stretch far stronger opponents than New Zealand – England and South Africa – to the limit, while also dealing with an unending list of controversies on the side. This time, however, they have almost no distractions; the delay in the naming of the World Cup captain is almost a non-issue for a side that is used to anarchy. They have also managed to put the spot-fixing hearings out of their mind and, instead of making a big deal about the delay in the verdict, they have shown signs of moving on.Misbah-ul-Haq deserves some of the credit for the newfound stability. Critics questioned the side’s approach when their batsmen played for a draw in the final session of the Wellington Test, led by Misbah at his obdurate best. But the fact of the matter is that Pakistan sides of earlier vintage would invariably have gone after the target, only to collapse in a heap and concede the series lead. Pakistan can do with a dose of such calmness in the one-dayers too, yet Shahid Afridi’s return to the helm of affairs will offer a counterpoint. The interplay between the two men – Misbah has been named vice-captain of the ODI side – promises to form an interesting sub-plot to this series, and the results could decide who will eventually lead Pakistan in the World Cup.New Zealand have far bigger questions to address before they can think of the big event. They haven’t won an ODI in 11 successive attempts, and John Wright knows only a radical change in approach and team combination can pull his side out of the rut. With batting in the middle overs being a major source of worry, Wright has already decided to change things around – Brendon McCullum will take guard at No. 6, breaking his successful association with Jesse Ryder at the top. Jacob Oram returns to the side, while James Franklin promises stability, so New Zealand have the pedigree to turn the corner. Will they kick the losing habit in Wellington?

Form guide

New Zealand: LLLLL
Pakistan: LWLWL

Players to watch out for …

New Zealand saw Abdul Razzaq at his menacing best in the third Twenty20, which preceded the Tests. In November last year, he smashed the South Africa attack in Abu Dhabi in one of the most stunning one-day innings of all-time. Razzaq’s methods may not work too often, but when they do, they turn games in a matter of minutes. His smart assortment of legcutters and slower balls could also pose New Zealand problems on wickets that have tended to be slow and spongy in recent times.Brendon McCullum is being sent down to No. 6, specifically to take advantage of the batting Powerplay. He has only played six of his 152 ODI innings at that position, though he has had reasonable success at Nos. 7 and 8. Like Razzaq, McCullum is an impact player, but he will go up against some of the smartest end-overs practitioners in the game, namely Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal and the irrepressible Shoaib Akhtar.

Team news

New Zealand have announced their XI, giving seamer Hamish Bennett a game and benching Jamie How. Martin Guptill will open the innings alongside Jesse Ryder, while McCullum will resume duty behind the stumps.New Zealand: 1 Jesse Ryder, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Scott Styris, 5 James Franklin, 6 Brendon McCullum (wk), 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Hamish BennettPakistan are yet to finalise the XI, but have announced that Kamran Akmal will be opening their innings. If Wahab Riaz continues to suffer from the flu that curtailed his participation in the second Test, Sohail Tanvir could get a chance.Pakistan (probable): 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq, 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Shahid Afridi (capt), 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Umar Gul, 9 Abdur Rehman / Saeed Ajmal, 10 Wahab Riaz / Sohail Tanvir, 11 Shoaib Akhtar

Stats and trivia

• Pakistan have a 48-32 win-loss record in ODIs against New Zealand. In New Zealand, though, it drops to 12-20
• Younis Khan has played 207 ODIs, without getting a game in New Zealand. Afridi has only played three in the country, while Razzaq leads the way for the current team, with 10 outings here

Quotes

“My bowling’s gone really well, I’ve been extremely happy with the way the ball has come out. The runs haven’t been flowing but I don’t feel far away.”

A round-up of the twelfth day of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Mar-2011An all-round team performance helped Bengal ease to a 31-run victory over Vidarbha at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, and sealed their place in the quarter-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.Electing to bat, Bengal got off to a solid start as openers Anustup Majumdar and Shreevats Goswami put on a 50-run stand in seven overs. After medium-pacer Amol Jungade got rid of Majumdar for 38, captain Manoj Tiwary (top scorer with 39) joined with Goswami. While the pair maneuvered the bowling well, their running between the wickets let them down, as both were run out by Sandeep Singh. A couple of big hits towards the end by Wriddhiman Saha pushed Bengal to 167.Vidarbha were never in a commanding position during the chase, losing wickets at regular intervals and scoring at just over a run a ball to finish their quota of overs on 136 for 7. While the Bengal bowlers shared the wickets around, Shami Ahmed was the pick with 3 for 24.Bengal will take on Maharashtra in the quarter-final on March 14 at the same venue.Haryana chased down a target of 141 with three balls to spare to knock out Mumbai at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on the back of steady knocks from Nitin Saini and Hemang Badani.Mumbai began poorly, losing both openers with just one run on the board. Wasim Jaffer and Rohit Sharma steadied the innings though, before some big hitting from Abhishek Nayar and Iqbal Abdulla got Mumbai to 140.Vineet Rathee was the pick of the bowlers, picking up 3 for 33.Haryana, too, lost their openers cheaply, before Sunny Singh was run out to leave them in trouble at 26 for 3 in the fifth over. But an 80-run fourth-wicket partnership between Badani and Saini got the innings back on track. After the pair was dismissed, Joginder Sharma and Amit Mishra struck a few boundaries to catch up with the increasing required rate and took Haryana home in the last over with four wickets in hand.Haryana will take on Kerala in the quarter-final on March 14 at the same venue.

Kumar Sangakkara has said that there is no point in saving Muttiah Muralitharan for the final, and that if he regains fitness, he will play tomorrow’s semi-final against New Zealand

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Colombo28-Mar-2011For the second match in succession, Sri Lanka are sweating over the fitness of Muttiah Muralitharan who is nursing a leg injury ahead of the semi-final against New Zealand tomorrow. “Murali and everyone around him is trying to get him as fit as possible and fit enough to play,” Kumar Sangakkara said.”It’s no use thinking about the final and saving him for other games, this is the crunch game and if he can play tomorrow that’ll be great for us, but if that doesn’t work out, we’ve got enough cover to make sure that we are still a solid winning side.””At the same time its two different injuries. He knocked his knee at Mumbai and he’s just aggravated a quadricep muscle – a very slight strain – in the game before so it’s not the same injury. We’ll just have to monitor how he goes and hope he is fit enough to play.”Sangakkara said that with injuries, it was crucial to see that both the team and the player were comfortable with him taking part in the match, especially a big one like the semi-final. “If Murali is not fit it’s something that we have to accept and get on with.”Having thrashed England by ten wickets in the quarter-finals, Sangakkara said that complacency is the last thing on Sri Lanka’s radar. “There’s no chance of that happening in anyone’s mind. You understand the gravity of the situation, you understand the challenge that’s going to come your way, you got to accept it and you got to enjoy it.Muttiah Muralitharan is in doubt for the semi-final with a leg injury•AFP

“The guys have done pretty well and tomorrow is not going to be any different. You can’t play too much to the crowds, or too much to show off, it’s a question of playing good solid cricket, concentrate on doing the best. We have set ourselves small goals to achieve, if we keep our heads and we perform as well as we can, we can turn it into a solid performance.””The expectations are always there, that’s not something that we can control, what we really want to do is to make sure that when we go out tomorrow, we are realistic. We stay in the moment and make sure we concentrate on what we have to do and make sure our focus is 100 per cent on tomorrow.”Sangakkara said the win over England was made to look easy because the openers – Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga – came up with a magnificent batting performance. “Those kinds of partnerships don’t come very often and that kind of overshadowed the contest as such. But England is a side that we were very wary of and we expected nothing less than their strong performance. In the light of that tomorrow it’s a new game for us. It’s nothing to do with England, we are starting from square one and we want to make sure that we understand that.”Sangakkara said that his team was building up momentum towards the final and that they were improving by the day. “In a tournament like this, there’s never a point when you think over where you are the best. It never happens in cricket. Also in big tournaments it’s always a question of gradual and continuous improvement for us. There are lots of areas we have to make sure we cover, we’ve done pretty much in the two days leading upto tomorrow. The guys are much focussed they are pretty confident but at the same time they understand that it is the performance that counts and that’s what we are trying to deliver tomorrow.”Sri Lanka were second-placed in Group A in the league stage which was considered relatively easier compared to Group B but Sangakkara didn’t think that was the case. “It’s hard to say that we got lots of breaks in the group stages and very few breaks this time. That’s not something that we can control, the schedule was set long before and we are happy that we have got here. Ours is to go one step further tomorrow.”Sri Lanka used three specialist spinners plus the occasional spin of Dilshan against England, but Sangakkara did not indicate what their plans were against New Zealand. “We thought that was the best combination to play against England. It was a very good track and it stayed true throughout. At the same time we have to consider other options as well. We have fast bowlers, especially Nuwan Kulasekara, who has done exceptionally well against New Zealand. So we got to make sure we play the right combination.”

Impressive bowling from Rikki Clarke and Boyd Rankin put Warwickshire on top after the opening day against Lancashire

George Dobell at Edgbaston04-May-2011
ScorecardBoyd Rankin took five wickets against Lancashire but it was Rikki Clarke who impressed the most•Getty Images

Read any article about Rikki Clarke and the word ‘potential’ will occur as frequently as a half-volley used to appear in one of his overs. And that’s pretty often. Indeed, ‘potential’ might just be the most over-used word in cricket. Some players are described as full of potential well into their 30s.Now, however, a decade into a career that has so far promised far more than it has delivered, Clarke finally seems to be fulfilling some of the immense talent that first earned him an England call-up at the age of just 21.The 29-year-old Clarke is now, against all expectations, emerging as the most reliable member of an impressive Warwickshire attack. After several years where his bowling had become almost irrelevant, Clarke has finally found the consistency to add to the pace and skill he has always possessed.Warwickshire were certainly grateful for his bowling on the first day of their Championship match against Lancashire. Clarke, bowling with pace, hostility and, more pertinently, consistency, claimed three top-order wickets, three catches and played a key role in bowling Lancashire out for just 227. So, might he now be fulfilling all that expectation?”That word ‘potential’ has been there ever since I was 18 or 19,” Clarke said afterwards. “And I’ll admit that there were probably times when I played for England and I didn’t warrant a place. I got there on potential.”Why have I not fully fulfilled that potential? Well, it’s not for lack of trying, I can tell you. But maybe I did take that potential for granted a little bit. I’m definitely working harder than ever before and I’ve taken playing for England out of the equation. I’m just not thinking about it.”There’s still time. You just look at other guys like Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett and Ryan Sidebottom. They showed you can come back into the side. If they can do it, so can I. And I know this is a cliche, but the best thing I can do now, is just concentrate on taking each day as it comes and doing my best for Warwickshire.”I know my game far better now. I know my bowling action and I feel really comfortable and confident. I’m at a club where I’m backed and I feel I can relax a bit more and enjoy my cricket.”There are many who doubt Clarke and he knows he’ll have to do perform over a much longer period to win them over. There are few men in county cricket who can bowl at pace and command a place in the top six of their batting line-up, however, so if Clarke continues his current form, he may yet have more of a role to play in international cricket.The first day of this game was not all about Clarke, however. Boyd Rankin bowled equally as well and, thanks to some tailend wickets, ended up with the more impressive figures. The lofty Irishman, extracting nasty lift from the sluggish surface, claimed his second five-wicket haul in three Championship games and wrapped up the Lancashire innings by taking the final three wickets at the cost of one run in just five balls.Rankin, encouraged to bowl short by his captain, Ian Bell, proved too hostile for the lower-order and troubled all the batsmen with his probing line and steep bounce. He, too, may yet have a role to play for England. While there are a couple of similar bowlers ahead of him in the queue at present – Tremlett and Finn spring to mind – Rankin is only 26 and still seems to be improving.”I want to play cricket at the highest level I can,” Rankin said afterwards. “In an ideal world that would be for Ireland but, to be honest, I can’t see Ireland getting Test status in the near future. I can’t see it happening in my playing lifetime.”And if the ICC decide to exclude us from the World Cup, there will be very little incentive for us. The World Cup gives us something to aim for. If they don’t let us play, you’ll see loads more young Irish lads come over to play in England and cricket in Ireland will just fade away.”This was not a particularly impressive batting display from Lancashire, however. Karl Brown and Steven Croft both fell when they left straight deliveries, while Mark Chilton edged a horribly loose drive and Gareth Cross rather spoiled his fine innings when he played on as he attempted to force without foot movement.Their entire innings was built around two noteworthy stands. First Stephen Moore and Chilton added 63 for the third wicket, before Cross and Luke Procter added 90 for the sixth. None of them managed to convert their good starts into the substantial innings their team needed, however. Moore, dropped by Clarke at slip off Rankin when he had 45, was unable to capitalise and was adjudged lbw after he propped half forward to the same bowler. It was the sixth time in nine innings this season that Moore has been dismissed with his score between 45 and 73.When Procter fell, prodding at one outside off stump, it precipitated a dramatic collapse, with. Lancashire losing their last five wickets for the addition of just eight runs in 40 balls. It’s the first time Lancashire have been dismissed for under 450 in their first innings this season. On a pitch of variable bounce, however, it may not prove to be quite such an inadequate total as it seems at first glance.James Anderson, bowling with good pace, soon dismissed William Porterfield with one that nipped back when Warwickshire began their reply. But Bell and Varun Chopra survived a torrid evening session to see their side to the close without further loss. Bell is captaining Warwickshire in place of the injured Jim Troughton, who hurt his shoulder in the field on Monday, while last season’s captain, Ian Westwood, was dropped to make way for Jonathan Trott.Lancashire, meanwhile, are without Sajid Mahmood and Farveez Maharoof, both of whom are suffering from minor injuries. Instead, they are fielding two left-arm spinners, with Simon Kerrigan playing his first Championship game of the season. On a pitch which has so far favoured the seamers, it’s a decision that may come to rue.

The PCB has cranked up the pressure in its dispute with Shahid Afridi by beginning formal disciplinary procedures against the former captain, even as political pressure is brought to bear on the board to resolve the dispute

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jun-2011The PCB has cranked up the pressure in its dispute with Shahid Afridi by beginning formal disciplinary procedures against the former captain, even as political pressure is brought to bear on the board to resolve the dispute. The board has, as expected, set up a three-member disciplinary committee and directed Afridi to appear before it on June 8, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.The committee will be chaired by Sultan Rana, director of domestic cricket, and will include Shafiq Ahmed, general manager of domestic cricket, and Usman Wahla, manager of international cricket. Taffazul Rizvi, the board’s legal advisor, will assist the committee.An unusually detailed board press release on Thursday evening spelt out the formal process. A statement from a senior board official also sought to make clear precisely what the issue was, an indication of the fairly high stakes of a very high-profile dispute and the subsequent need to be as transparent as possible.The board said it had responded to Afridi’s defense, in which he had admitted to violating the PCB’s code of conduct by announcing his retirement to the media. “It is painful for us to get involved in a dispute with a cricketer who has been the national team captain until the West Indies series,” PCB COO Subhan Ahmed said in the release. “There are numerous contributions by Shahid Afridi to Pakistan cricket. But I think people need to understand that this is purely a disciplinary issue.”As the body managing cricket in the country we are duty-bound to maintain discipline at all levels. We will ensure that Shahid is given every opportunity to express and defend himself and as such the disciplinary process has been clearly spelt out to avoid any ambiguities”.This administration has sought at every opportunity to strangle what it sees as burgeoning player power; last year they banned or fined seven top players after the Australia tour. Two of them, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf, spent protracted periods out of the side thereafter. But Afridi is a different kettle of fish, not only because he was a captain with some positive results to show, but because of his immense popularity across most of the land; no other player in the side comes close.For this reason, the dispute has become politicised. The day began with Rehman Malik, the country’s interior minister, pledging to get involved in the matter, “I will do whatever I can to resolve this issue, as I am equally a fan of Afridi,” Malik tweeted. ESPNcricinfo understands that pressure has been put on the board from his side but that it has so far been resisted.Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, is also politically well-covered – he is appointed directly by the President of the country and board patron Asif Ali Zardari. But the board believes its case, in this matter, to be strong enough to not warrant political intervention from their side, for now at least. Malik has success in such matters in the past, having mediated a peace between former chairman Nasim Ashraf and Shoaib Akhtar in 2008.As part of the disciplinary proceedings, the committee will frame charges, record evidence and hear arguments before announcing its order. Afridi will be allowed to file an appeal against the order, through an appellate tribunal comprising an independent panel of arbitrators maintained by the PCB, and their ruling on the matter would be final.While announcing his ‘conditional’ retirement, Afridi lashed out at the current board and has brewed up a number of storms; he has hit out at former Test opener and current selector Mohammad Ilyas, as well as playing up the regionalism card by attacking a “Lahore lobby” behind his removal. In some reports he has also criticised Intikhab Alam, the team manager. These comments, it is understood, have hardened the board’s stance and resolve in ensuring the disciplinary process is followed through to a logical and legal end.The developments further reduce the chances of Afridi playing for Hampshire in the Friends Life t20; the PCB suspended Afridi’s contract, slapped him with a showcause notice, and revoked the No-Objection Certificate that would have allowed him to turn out for Hampshire. Afridi, keen to get the Hampshire situation resolved quickly, admitted to violating the code and stated his willingness to participate in further disciplinary action. Hampshire have urged the PCB to reconsider the withdrawal of the NOC, but at this stage it looks unlikely.

Nottinghamshire’s perfect record in the Friends Life t20 came to a soggy end when their clash with Leicestershire was abandoned after a thunderstorm at Grace Road

10-Jun-2011
Scorecard
Nottinghamshire’s perfect record in the Friends Life t20 came to a soggy end when their clash with Leicestershire was abandoned after a thunderstorm at Grace Road.The Outlaws posted 164 for 8 after being put into bat with David Hussey hitting 32 off 16 balls to go past fellow Australian Brad Hodge’s world record total of 3,690 runs in Twenty20 cricket.
But with the Foxes at 21 without loss after 2.4 overs of their reply, heavy rain followed by thunder and lightning brought an end to proceedings leaving the teams with one point each.It meant an end to Nottinghamshire’s three-game winning run to start the competition while the Foxes were also robbed of the chance to end their 10-game winless run at Grace Road. The last time the Foxes won a Twenty20 match at home was against Yorkshire in June 2009.With the pitch tinged with green Foxes’ captain Matthew Hoggard put the Outlaws into bat and left-arm seamer Harry Gurney had them rocking with two wickets in his second over. Gurney snared openers Alex Hales and Riki Wessels who both provided catches with top-edged pull shots.Hussey was soon into his stride however and a glorious straight six off Abdul Razzaq took him past Hodge’s record. Hussey then smacked Gurney for three consecutive boundaries and with Hoggard conceding 16 runs in his first over the Outlaws reached 61 for 2 off their six overs of Powerplay.Hussey and fellow Perth-born batsman Adam Voges put on 55 in five overs with the stand ended when Hussey clipped a catch to midwicket off Hoggard. Voges was then run out when Andrew McDonald deflected a straight drive by Samit Patel into the stumps and the Outlaws’ innings gradually ran out of steam.Chris Read and Steven Mullaney provided some late momentum but a superb final two overs from Razzaq, which brought him two wickets for only six runs, pegged the Outlaws to 164 for eight with only 32 runs coming from the last five overs.

The world’s No.1 allrounder and bowler, Australia’s Shelley Nitschke, has announced her retirement from international cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jul-2011The world’s No.1 allrounder and bowler, Australia’s Shelley Nitschke, has announced her retirement from international cricket. Nitschke, 34, will bow out after the quadrangular series final against England in Wormsley, and she will leave at the peak of her game, having won the past three Australian Women’s International Player of the Year awards.Her value to Australia’s team cannot be underestimated; as well as being the highest-ranked bowled and allrounder in the world, she is third on the international batting rankings table. A win in the decider against England would be the perfect way to cap off the career of Nitschke, who made her international debut seven years ago.”There are a couple of highlights that really stand out, those being the 2005 World Cup win in India and the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup victory in the West Indies which were are very memorable experiences and were great to be part of,” Nitschke said. “My plan has always been to go out when I was still playing well and on my terms. I’m happy with my career and achievements and the time feels right. I’m certainly not getting any younger.”I have had a tremendous amount of support throughout my career from friends outside the game, coaches, team-mates, my parents and my partner have always been really supportive and I thank them all for their help and advice along the way. I have thoroughly enjoyed representing my country and cherish every moment that I’ve had around the team and I wish them all the best.”I’m now looking forward to getting back into full-time work, perhaps having some time to play other sports as well and having more time to spend with my family and friends.”An opening batsman and left-arm spinner, Nitschke was named the ICC International Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2010. Michael Brown, the acting CEO of Cricket Australia, said Nitschke had been a wonderful ambassador for women’s cricket in Australia and would be sorely missed from the national side.”Shelley Nitschke has been a standout allrounder at world level for quite a few years now and her abilities with both bat and ball have greatly contributed to the success of the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars,” Brown said. “Her service for women’s cricket in Australia has been outstanding both as a player and an advocate for the game.”She has dedicated herself to cricket in the most professional way and her record at international level speaks for itself. She will certainly be sorely missed.”In 79 ODIs prior to the quadrangular final, Nitschke has scored 2032 runs at 34.44 and has taken 97 wickets at 21.88, making her Australia’s all-time third leading wicket taker behind Cathryn Fitzpatrick and Lisa Sthalekar. She has also played six Tests and 36 Twenty20 internationals, and is the world’s leading T20I wicket-taker and Australia’s top run-scorer.

Former team manager Imran Khan has criticised the USA Cricket Association administration, blaming it for the national team’s failure to advance from ICC WCL Division Three

Peter Della Penna16-Jul-2011Former team manager Imran Khan has criticised the USA Cricket Association (USACA) administration, calling its president Gladstone Dainty and the board of directors incompetent and blaming them for the national team’s failure to advance from ICC WCL Division Three to the top echelon of Associate cricket.”The people in charge have completely failed,” Khan, who was USA’s manager from 2008 until the tour to Hong Kong in January, told ESPNcricinfo. “Don’t blame the team. They’re at the low level. It starts right at the top. These guys have proven their incompetence.”Since his return from Hong Kong, Khan claimed he received no communication from USACA despite attempts to reach out to them. According to USACA general manager, Manaf Mohammed, Khan was not invited to be the team manager for the upcoming ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in Florida because he lived in England and it was not worth flying him in. Khan, however, said this was another indication of how USACA operates because he has been living at his summer home in San Francisco for several months.According to Khan, as team manager, he made it a priority to write and submit detailed reports after each tournament. They covered the organisation of practice sessions, team selection, kits, travel itinerary and evaluations of each player’s off-field behaviour on tour. Khan claimed the administration ignored the reports and any recommendations he made.”The only response I’ve ever had is, ‘Your reports are too long. Nobody reads them’,” Khan said. “What is the point of writing these reports and giving the feedback and analysis when nobody cares? They just want a confirmation the tour happened and that’s it.”The manner in which players were treated by the administration, Khan said, was unacceptable and the selection for the ICC Americas Division One T20 tournament was the latest of several confusing decisions made by the country’s three selectors. Khan said the biggest problem was that the players were not told why they were dropped or where they stand. He claimed this was the case with batsman Sushil Nadkarni – one of 10 players cut after the Hong Kong tour – before he was abruptly brought back into the squad last week at the expense of Nauman Mustafa, allegedly on Dainty’s orders.”They are incompetent and they are not capable,” Khan said. “I’m talking about the president all the way down to all the directors and all the people involved in leadership positions because I’ve met most of them … they don’t have the ability to communicate such a thing.”The communication breakdown was not limited to the players, Khan said, and was responsible for damaging relationships with coaches as well as lost sponsorship opportunities. He said that, on the tour to the UAE and Nepal in February 2010, former chief executive Don Lockerbie had promised Dipak Patel, the former New Zealand spinner, who was with the team as a consultant coach, the position of head coach and the responsibility of building a national development program. After the tour ended, though, Patel did not hear back from anyone. Lockerbie’s presence, Khan said, had also undermined the role of head coach Clayton Lambert and created disharmony among players loyal to Lambert.”In my presence, he [Patel] was promised the main coaching job in the US, responsible for its development,” Khan said. “He was going to take over. Dipak was even talking about moving his family to the US and how he would convey that to his family and how his wife and kids would react to that. A seed had been planted, ‘we want you. Now we’re going to talk about salaries,’ and then once the tour ended, it finished.”Prior to the ICC WCL Division Four in Italy in August 2010, Khan said Mohammed had publicly discussed plans for the team to go to England for a pre-tournament training camp. Khan was organising that portion of the tour through his network of contacts. The arrangements included a day at Lord’s and several warm-up games against representative XIs but USACA canceled everything at the last minute.”That was shocking and embarrassing for me because I unfortunately burnt a lot of bridges in England and [lost] long-established contacts with reputable people,” Khan said. “We talked to Jimmy Ormond who used to play for England and Surrey. They decided to host a Surrey XI, ex-professionals or current professionals, and we had got a Kent XI. We were going to organise a similar thing in Sussex, or up in Henley with a Berkshire XI.Khan also spoke of a deal with Gray-Nicolls – “whose head I knew very well” – who would supply free kits to USA’s first XI in return for the chance to sell merchandise through the USACA website. It needed the chief executive’s signature but that never came.Khan says the people most affected by the administration are those who come through the Under-19 system but fail to get the support necessary to develop their talent. “Dipak Patel offered to take the majority of these kids into club cricket in New Zealand to develop them,” Khan said. “That Under-19 team that went to the World Cup in 2010, that should have been the majority [senior] team now. How many of those kids are in this team?”Let’s look at Ryan Corns. What has he done to be dropped? This is your young, prime talent coming through. He could be a future captain. He’s from a white background, so from a marketing perspective it makes sense. Not only is he a great prospect for the future and a good player, but he also could be a good face for US cricket to sell to the domestic public. It just makes sense and yet you’ve kicked him out for Joe Average players nobody’s heard of. It’s a short-term thing done for votes.”According to Khan, the current administration is locked in a power struggle based on ethnic and cultural alliances that is damaging to all stakeholders. For the organisation to truly succeed, he feels, a wave of young business professionals independent of political influence needs to step up and take control.”There will never be a unified structure until this old guard is completely replaced. This old guard with their back-home mentality is always the problem. I mean they do a lot of good things – they established the thing – but when they try to replicate what they had back home is when the problem begins.”

Durham’s County Championship title ambitions have been kept alive by a
208-run victory against Sussex at Hove

03-Sep-2011
Scorecard
Durham’s County Championship title ambitions have been kept alive by a
208-run victory against Sussex at Hove. In their penultimate game of the campaign, Durham bowled Sussex out for 312 in their second innings by 2.16pm on the final day to go top of Division One with 211 points.Durham do not play in next week’s round of matches, in which close rivals
Lancashire and Warwickshire – each with a game in hand – take on Hampshire and
Nottinghamshire respectively, but they then have a home game against
Worcestershire in the final week of the Championship.Matt Prior stroked a brilliant 77 for Sussex but Ian Blackwell struck a vital
blow for Durham by having him leg-before in a five-wicket haul, and Graham
Onions hurried Durham to their seventh win of the season with a burst down the
Hove slope immediately after lunch which brought him the wickets of Wayne
Parnell and Amjad Khan in quick succession.Onions took three for 49 overall, and slow left-armer Blackwell added three
more victims to his two overnight wickets to finish with well-deserved figures
of 5 for 102.Defeat for Sussex drags them further into the relegation picture. Left-hander Parnell edged a fine ball angled across him by Onions to keeper Phil Mustard, who then also took the catch when Khan touched a legside delivery.Parnell had hit a bright and breezy 49-ball 44, in an eighth-wicket stand of 65
with Ben Brown, holding Durham up after they had earlier worked hard to split
Sussex’s sixth wicket pair of Prior and Mike Yardy.Sussex had resumed on 119 for four and nightwatchman Jimmy Anyon was dismissed
in the sixth over of the morning, well held at short leg by Mark Stoneman off
Mitch Claydon. But Prior and Yardy, both looking to play their shots, saw off Claydon and
Onions before also taking the attack to Durham’s spinners, Blackwell and Scott
Borthwick.Leg spinner Borthwick received some particularly heavy punishment, Prior twice
driving him past mid on for fours and also hitting him beautifully through extra
cover, while Yardy swept him powerfully as they took their partnership to 71.Blackwell, however, finally got the breakthrough after being switched to the
Cromwell Road end and winning an lbw shout against Prior when the England Test
wicketkeeper tried to flick a ball away to fine leg and missed. Prior’s 77 had
taken him only 88 balls and included 15 fours.Yardy was the next to go for 34, superbly held at silly mid off by Will Smith
from bat and pad as he pushed forward to Blackwell, but the Brown-Parnell
alliance took Sussex through to lunch at 274 for 7. Parnell, who had edged Onions between keeper and first slip for his sixth four earlier in the over, then fell with the total at 287 and the end came soon after last man Monty Panesar, to the delight of a decent Hove crowd, had swept and clubbed Blackwell for three leg-side sixes.Blackwell had the last laugh, though, when Panesar aimed another violent blow
and was bowled for 18. Durham took 23 points from the game, and Sussex four.

Offspinner Harbhajan Singh has been dropped from the Indian squad for the first two ODIs against England on October 14 and 17

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Sep-2011Offspinner Harbhajan Singh has been left out of India’s squad for the first two ODIs against England on October 14 and 17. Karnataka medium-pacer S Aravind and Punjab legspinner Rahul Sharma have received their maiden international call-ups.Fast bowler, Varun Aaron who was part of the ODI squad in England but did not play, retained his place in the 15-man team. Batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary are the other replacements sent to England who kept their spots.Fast bowler Umesh Yadav, who was not part of the India set-up since the 2010-11 Test series in South Africa, also made a comeback.The squad is missing Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma due to injuries sustained on the recent tour of England. Fast bowler Ashish Nehra, who had declared himself fit after breaking his hand during the World Cup, and allrounder Yusuf Pathan, who was part of the World Cup squad, were not selected.India’s squad contained five batsmen – Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary – two wicketkeeper batsmen – MS Dhoni and Parthiv Patel – and one allrounder in Ravindra Jadeja. The bowling attack comprised five seamers – Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind and Praveen Kumar – and two spinners in R Ashwin and Rahul Sharma.Harbhajan’s axeing came after his disappointing performance during the Test series in England, where he took only two wickets in 69.4 overs at an average of 143.50 and economy-rate of 4.11. He suffered a stomach injury during the second Test and was ruled out of the last two matches and the limited-overs series that followed. India lost the Test series 0-4 and the ODI series 0-3 in England.Aravind had a strong 2010-11 domestic season; he was the second-highest wicket-taker for Karnataka with 26 scalps and also the second-highest wicket-taker for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy with 10 wickets. He followed that up with an impressive performance for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2011 to push his claims for national recognition. Rahul Sharma also caught notice in the IPL, where he picked up 16 wickets in 14 games for the under-performing Pune Warriors, at the eye-popping economy-rate of 5.46.This selection meeting in Chennai was the first since the BCCI replaced Yashpal Sharma with Mohinder Amarnath as the North Zone representative on the panel.Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar.