All posts by csb10.top

Tim May, chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), has distanced himself from comments made by Ian Smith, the association’s legal advisor.Smith was quoted in The Guardian as warning that the players are set to pass a vote of no confidence in the ICC. “People are increasingly seriously asking why aren’t we walking away,” Smith said. “The competence of the administrators is being called into question at a policy level. We believe that because the players are better organised and that talent has been radically revalued by the Indian leagues it’s time to look at whether the players can do a better job than the current policy makers.”But May moved quickly to clarify that Smith’s views were not those of FICA. “Ian’s comments represent his personal view on the matter and do not represent FICA’s position at this time. This is not to say, however, that FICA does not have concerns with the governance structure of the ICC.”After the World Cup last year, which was widely considered to have been poorly administered, FICA issued a poll in which 56% of players who took part expressed a lack of confidence in the ICC. “FICA stated its concerns with the governance structure of the ICC at that time and called upon the ICC to review its governance structure, to determine whether its current structure is the most appropriate for an international sport,” May said. “FICA’s position in regard to this issue has not changed.”May added that FICA was undertaking another survey with the results expected at the end of next month. “We will then communicate any relevant matters that relate directly to ICC, direct with the ICC.”

4 – The number of times England have won scoring 270 or more batting second in an ODI174 – The second-wicket partnership between Gayle and Dwayne Bravo. It’s the second-highest for that wicket for West Indies against England – Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan had added 187 at Lord’s in 200451 – Chris Gayle’s batting average in ODIs against England. This was his second century against them in 13 games.19.06 – Gayle’s ODI bowling average against England. In 13 games he has taken 18 wickets73 – The number of runs West Indies scored in their last ten overs, despite having nine wickets in hand6 – The number of centuries Gayle has scored in ODIs that West Indies have lost. Only Sachin Tendulkar – with 11 such knocks – has made more hundreds in defeats, while Marcus Trescothick has six as well50 – The score made by both England openers. It’s the first time in the history of ODIs that both openers from a team have scored exactly 50148 – The number of runs Kevin Pietersen had scored in his eight previous ODI innings before this match

Sanath Jayasuriya has been recalled to the Sri Lankan Test side after reversing his decision to retire. The selectors met this afternoon, after Jayasuriya indicated a willingness to make himself available for Tests again, and decided to send him to England as soon as possible.Jayasuriya met with Ashantha de Mel, Sri Lanka’s new chairman of selectors, on Wednesday morning to discuss his possible return. The decision has been ratified by the Sports Ministry and although Jayasuriya’s travel details have not been confirmed he is likely to arrive in the UK midway through the first Test.”Jayasuriya indicated a willingness to make himself available for Test cricket again and we decided to send him to England as soon as possible,” de Mel told AFP. “Sanath can’t reach England in time for the first Test. But he will have enough time to acclimatise and get himself focussed for the second and third Tests.”The muddled scenario is an unwelcome distraction for a young team that ought to be using this tour to build for the future, and their coach, Tom Moody, admitted that the uncertainty would probably be weighing on the minds of his probable openers, Michael Vandort and Upul Tharanga.”I suppose it’s something sitting in the back of your head, ‘is he coming, isn’t he coming?'”, said Moody. “But we in the senior group are encouraging the younger players to stay focused on the opportunity they’ve got. They need to concentrate on that, there’s no point looking over their shoulders.”Whether it’s a senior player coming back or a younger player knocking on door, it makes no difference,” added Moody. “The pressure’s the same, and you need to take the opportunities when they come. We’ll just concentrate on our game. England go into contest as favourites, but there’s no point worrying what their expectations are, that’s irrelevant. We’re going in to win the contest, with spirit and self-belief.”Duleep Mendis, Sri Lanka’s chief executive, denied a report appearing in that claimed that the decision to send Jayasuriya to England had already been made, saying that he first needed a letter confirming that Jayasuriya had reconsidered his decision to retire. “At this stage I have not received a letter,” Mendis said. “When I do, the selection committee will have to meet to confirm and then his selection would have to be ratified with the sports ministry. Only then could arrangements be made for him to join the England tour.”Jayasuriya retired from Test cricket in April, midway through a home series against Pakistan, when the previous selection committee, headed by Lalith Kaluperuma, communicated their plans to blood new openers during the England Test series. Jayasuriya was offered the chance of a dignified farewell Test or an unceremonious sacking.But de Mel, appointed last week, made it clear that he wanted Jayasuriya to reconsider his decision to retire: “When the selectors knew that Marvan [Atapattu] is not going to make it to England with his back problem they should have continued with Jayasuriya. He just played a county season in England last year and and is the only Sri Lankan to have scored a double hundred in England. What more credentials do you want?”

Sourav Ganguly must love irony. Of all the grounds in the world to make a one-day comeback, of all the venues to seek redemption, he returns to Nagpur. His previous trip here, when India were humiliated in a series-deciding clash against Australia, is widely considered the starting point of his downfall. Today, with close to 500 spectators cheering him on at the nets, he was like Napoleon preparing for revenge at Waterloo.Ganguly hasn’t played a one-day international for India since September 2005. Ironically – yes, that word again – he’s managed seven Tests in that period, ironical because Ganguly in one-dayers is colossal compared to Ganguly in Tests. Few have blended bravado and skill so deftly in the first 15 overs and almost nobody has trotted down the track to 150kph thunderbolts and slotted them over long-off.His half-hour workout today, divided between the fast bowlers and the spinners, was the most exciting part of a rather mundane nets session. Apparently simulating the first 15 overs of an ODI, he swung his bat merrily. He spanked Zaheer Khan, who was the sharpest bowler on the day, RP Singh and Sreesanth – his short arm jab off RP Singh that soared into the stands was most eye-catching. The spinners were simply mangled. Harbhajan Singh was clattered for two huge sixes, Ramesh Powar received some back-foot peppering and the lesser known net bowlers didn’t stand a chance.Batting in the nets next to him was Robin Uthappa, who has butchered bowlers around the domestic circuit and is a likely opening partner for the first match. Sachin Tendulkar, recently promoted to the vice-captaincy and looking all pumped up with the responsibility, is likely to be moved down the batting order. He and Rahul Dravid, quite detached from the action today and looking tired while running between the wickets, will be expected to shore up the middle order. Yuvraj Singh, who isn’t in the squad for the first two games, batted and bowled for brief periods but didn’t look in any sort of discomfort.Just one glance at India’s cricketers practicing at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur, and you knew that this was a team back to square one, as they were before that sorry 4-0 defeat in South Africa. Three hours of run-of-the-mill loosening up, involving players trying to desperately overcome their lethargy, was as sober as you can get. Forget adventure sports, military-training sessions and fancy rolling camps – this was a good old-fashioned warm-up.

Nobody typified the rustiness more than Ramesh Powar, huffing his way through the fielding drills. Anil Kumble’s absence provides India a chance to try out two spinners on a pitch that will assist turn as the game progresses and India’s advantage is that the two offspinners have contrasting styles. “Harbhajan has a flatter trajectory. He looks for bounce from the wicket — not that he doesn’t get any turn. He gets big turn too and he has been our best ODI bowler in the last year,” Dravid said yesterday. “Powar, meanwhile, looks to beat batsmen with guile. Flight is his preferred mode of attack. I think he will be around for a long while and will be able to step into Anil Kumble’s shoes whenever the situation arises. Despite the fact that both of them are offspinners, they tend to bowl well in tandem. They complement each other well and if the opportunity does arise, we will bowl them together.”Kumble’s shoes aren’t easy to fill but Dravid’s tone pretty much conveys that the series won’t be about set patterns. Trying out a few new players – Joginder Sharma warmed up nicely with both bat and ball today, Dinesh Karthik smashed a few around before undertaking a fielding workout – may just be the idea. It’s not as bad an idea as it sounds because India’s one-day graph over the last one year had soared, dipped and finally reached starting point. Now that’s another big irony of our times.

What on earth is Michael Vaughan doing in this England team? That was the question that everyone was asking at the end of an inconclusive day at the WACA, but it was one that Vaughan himself was not permitted to answer. England’s injured captain emerged unscathed (we believe) from his first day in the team since the tour of India in February, and even took charge for a two-over spell when Andrew Strauss had to leave the field. But to what end, no-one was quite able to fathom.Instead, after requests for a post-match interview were turned down by the ECB, it was left to Sajid Mahmood to speak on Vaughan’s behalf. “He’s still vocal, still his usual self. It’s good to have him back,” said Mahmood, who produced a decent but inconclusive spell of 2 for 61 and spent most of his time fielding various enquiries about the form and fitness of a man he has never played under in Test cricket.It’s becoming a recurring theme on this trip, because Vaughan’s presence in Australia is veering towards the supernatural. He’s the captain without a voice, the minister without portfolio, the familiar face among the anonymous rookies of the ECB Academy. And the harder the ECB attempt to play down his presence, the more they stir their own pot of innuendo.And so, we ask again, what on earth is Vaughan doing in this match? It’s a reasonable question and it deserved a reasonable answer, especially given Duncan Fletcher’s suggestion to the BBC yesterday. “There’s not enough cricket between now and the third, fourth and fifth Tests,” said Fletcher, “especially cricket where he has to stay in the field for a long time, probably two days standing on that leg, and for a long innings. So until he can do that and he’s confident in his knee we won’t consider Michael Vaughan.”So here instead, courtesy of the ECB, is Mahmood’s take on the situation: “He was a huge success in the Ashes last year, and to have him back in the field was great for the lads.” So, given that all we are can to do is speculate, Vaughan must be out there geeing up a dispirited side and getting them back on track for the last three Tests. I bet that’ll do wonders for Andrew Flintoff’s sapping morale. After all, leading by inspiration is meant to be his one true talent as a captain.Make no mistake, Vaughan deserves sympathy for his plight and admiration for his refusal to bow to what has long seemed the inevitable. Like Jonny Wilkinson, his rise and fall is a tale lifted straight from a Greek tragedy – the glory of his finest hour giving way instantly to pain, suffering and recriminations. But there is a time and a place for such a public show of single-mindedness, and right here, right now – on the eve of England’s make-or-break moment in an Ashes series – is emphatically neither.Before the tour began, those in the know – most of whom are in and around the press box and the England camp – were scoffing at the prospect of Vaughan making an Ashes comeback. Many in fact questioned whether he would ever be seen on a cricket field again. Now, however, who knows what we are to believe. England have already shown themselves to be obsessively fixated with the team of 2005. Is it really so improbable that Vaughan is about to be parachuted into the fray?

After all, the damage has already been done on this trip. Mahmood, Chris Read and Monty Panesar were whipped out of a winning side and left to simmer on the sidelines, smarting at such a public show of no-confidence from an administration that remains perversely loyal to its non-playing captain. “It’s been frustrating,” admitted Mahmood today, just as Panesar admitted to Cricinfo on Thursday and Read to anyone within earshot. Panesar’s display today was remarkable – it was skill blended with relief blended with fury when he snatched his jumper back after an appeal was turned down. His desperation to impress seemed to dent some of his unbridled love for the game. And that is as sad as it is wrong.Vaughan is not a quitter. That much is abundantly clear, and so there is a perverse logic in having him hanging around so close to this Ashes squad, so close to their final, final, chance. But that’s all it is. Perverse. In days gone by, before he lost faith in the men at his disposal, Fletcher would have backed his captain to the hilt – publicly, privately, and everywhere in between. And by captain, I mean Flintoff, who had to reiterate last week that he had been put in charge for all five Tests, and not Vaughan. Just in case Fletcher has forgotten.Instead, Fletcher has thrown a hospital pass to his active captain by blaming him, through a mysterious source at The Daily Mail, for the selection disasters at Brisbane and Adelaide. Rumours, rumours. But now, what’s this we read today? ” It was the right choice to make [Freddie] captain and I’m not sure if he’s getting the side he wants,” said a certain Shane Warne in his Times column today.Shane Who? Amid all the bickering, the struggle for the Ashes seems to have been forgotten. But at least we now know that Mahmood “put the ball in good areas” and “felt in good rhythm in the nets”. All hope is not yet lost.

Percy Sonn, the ICC’s president, has cancelled the executive board meeting to brief the directors about the events of the last week which was scheduled for next weekend. Sonn has spoken to the those concerned in the past few days and is satisfied that they understand the process sufficiently.”The original intention was to seek legal advice concerning the executive board’s powers but I do not believe it is necessary to obtain that advice,” Sonn said in a statement on Sunday. “We have processes in place to deal with Code of Conduct matters and we should not seek to interfere with it.”There has been much speculation over the past few days about whether the executive board has the power to overturn a properly laid charge by the umpires,” he continued. “That speculation would only be bound to intensify ahead of the weekend and so by canceling the meeting it will allow everyone to get off that particular topic and focus on the cricket to be played this week instead.”Reacting to the news Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, said: “We understand the need for the hearing to go ahead for the reasons explained by the ICC president Mr Sonn. In the meantime, we are delighted at the chance to get back to playing cricket, starting with this afternoon’s Twenty20 against England and with five one-day internationals to follow.”The date for Inzamam-ul-Haq’s hearing will be confirmed in due course but it is likely to be in the second half of September.

Afghanistan will be one of 12 nations dreaming of a place in the 2011 World Cup when the World Cricket League Division Five begins in Jersey later this month.Germany, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, USA, Vanuatu, Botswana, Japan, Jersey, Bahamas and Singapore are the 11 other teams who will take part in the event from May 23-31, with the possibility of a World Cup place at the end of the road.Realistically the chances of any of them making it to the subcontinent in 2011 are very slim. They would have to progress through all the WCL Divisions and compete against strong Associate nations such as Kenya, Ireland and Scotland, but it provides a chance for these smaller cricket nations to develop.”This gives every side a clear pathway for progression and the chance to compete at the very highest level,” the ICC global development manager Matthew Kennedy said. “So even though a team might be competing in the WCL Division Five tournament this month, there is the chance it could make it all the way to the next World Cup.”More realistically, though, it gives those teams a structure and a long-term goal to aim at so that even if they don’t get there this time, they could target 2015, 2019 or 2023.”On another level, WCL Division Five also gives these sides the opportunity to play against similarly ranked sides from around the world in conditions that perhaps they are not used to. It is very much part of the development process to give players the chance to perform outside their home environment.”This tournament also marks the return of USA to ICC events, more than a year after they were suspended from international cricket. The finalists will be promoted to the World Cricket League Division Four and join Hong Kong, Fiji, Tanzania and Italy in a six-team event that will take place in the Tanzanian capital Dar Es Salaam from October 4 to 11.The opening day of Division Five on 23 May will see the USA take on Mozambique in Group A at the picturesque Farmer’s Field ground. In the same group Nepal play Germany at Les Quennevais and Norway face Vanuatu at FB Fields. In Group B Afghanistan begin their campaign underway with a match against Japan at Victoria College.Meanwhile, hosts Jersey play Singapore at Grainville and the Bahamas will line up against Botswana on the second pitch at Les Quennevais.Group A Germany, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, USA, Vanuatu
Group B Afghanistan, Botswana, Japan, Jersey, Bahamas, Singapore

Leicestershire have announced that six players – Darren Robinson, John Maunders, Arno Jacobs, Paul Harrison, Marc Rosenberg and David Stiff – are being released at the end of the season. The county were keen to stress that the players had been released with a view to making room for new ones to be brought in.”We are currently in negotiations with new players and I am confident that we will be in a position to announce new signings in the coming weeks,” said Tim Boon, Leicestershire’s coach. “We have set out our intentions through the club’s recruitment and selection policy for 2008 and beyond that we want to develop the best young talent around a core group of senior role-model professionals, and that will be reflected in the players that are brought to Grace Road.”I would like to thank those players who have not been offered new contracts for their commitment and service to the club and would also like to wish them well in the future.”

The Irish Cricket Union has confirmed the dates for India’s three-match series against South Africa in Belfast and also two ODIs where Ireland will play both teams.The three-match series will start on June 26 with subsequent matches on June 29 and July 1. Ireland will play India on June 23 and South Africa the following day in their first ODIs since the World Cup.”The Irish Cricket Union is proud that two such great cricketing nations as India and South Africa are coming to Ireland to play each other and against Ireland,” said ICU chief executive Warren Deutrom. “Following last year’s hugely successful match at Stormont between Ireland and England, the ICU is delighted that top-class cricket continues to come to Ireland, in the first ever matches between full Test nations here.”These matches will not only continue to put Irish cricket on the map after the success of the Ireland team at the World Cup, but should provide a real financial impetus to our objectives for the future of the game.”In original discussions it had been suggested that Australia would be India’s opposition but those plans fell through. The series will be South Africa’s first commitments since the World Cup although some of the players are due to appear in the Afro-Asia cup in early June. For India, the three ODIs will act as preparation for their tour of England which starts in July.

A proposed one-day series between Australia and India in Northern Ireland in June and July is in danger of being scrapped. The Indian board (BCCI) announced in February three matches would be played in Belfast, but Cricket Australia is still waiting for information about the games.”We have been discussing with the BCCI about New York, about Toronto and most recently the discussion has been Ireland,” Peter Young, a Cricket Australia spokesman, said in the Daily Telegraph. “We are waiting for them to give a written reply as to where we stand.”India, who exited the World Cup after the first stage, initially planned to use the series as preparation for their tour of England in July. Australia’s winter is light but 2008 is going to be extremely heavy with a world-record 20 Tests scheduled and around 30 one-day matches. Australia will host India and Sri Lanka in 2007-08 before touring West Indies and Pakistan. When they return they are due to face Bangladesh, India, New Zealand and South Africa.