Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has withdrawn his appeal against the provisional suspension imposed on him by the ICC for his alleged involvement in the spot-fixing controversy

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Oct-2010Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler, has withdrawn his appeal against the provisional suspension imposed on him by the ICC for his alleged involvement in the spot-fixing controversy. The appeals of three Pakistan players – Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir being the others – were due to be heard on October 30 and 31 in Doha.The trio hadn’t been picked, as a result of their suspensions, for Pakistan’s upcoming tour of the UAE where they play South Africa in a full series. Asif, however, would not have been able to participate even if the provisional suspension was lifted following the hearing of the appeals later this month; he is barred from entering the UAE following detention in 2008 for a drug-related offence.”I have chosen not to contest the provisional suspension at this time simply because I am content to await the main disciplinary hearing where my full case can be placed before the ICC,” Asif said of the reason for his decision.Pakistan’s assignment following the UAE series is a tour of New Zealand in December by when the ICC would have conducted a full hearing – which needs to be held within three months of imposing the provisional suspension – into the controversy. The suspensions were handed out on September 2 this year and Asif can now only apply for it to be lifted once the full hearing has concluded.”Mohammad Asif confirmed earlier today that he has withdrawn his challenge to the provisional suspension imposed on him on 2 September 2010 pending determination of the charges brought against him under the ICC’s Anti Corruption Code,” an ICC release said. “Arrangements are now being made for the challenges being made by Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir against their provisional suspensions to be heard in Dubai on 30 and 31 October 2010.”

Thilan Samaraweera helped rescue Sri Lanka from 34 for 3, and improved his chances of securing a place in Sri Lanka’s 2011 World Cup squad

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Colombo24-Nov-2010Thilan Samaraweera wouldn’t have done his chances of securing a place in Sri Lanka’s 2011 World Cup squad any harm when he scored a well-paced 80 off 170 balls against West Indies on the second day of the second test at the R Premadasa Stadium. With Sri Lanka struggling at 34-3, Samaraweera joined his captain, Kumar Sangakkara, to pull the side out of trouble, and at the end of another rain-hit day, Sri Lanka were sitting pretty on 294-5.He was eventually out caught pulling a short ball from Dwayne Bravo down long leg’s throat to end a record 170-run fourth wicket stand with Sangakkara, who was unbeaten on 135 when rain stopped play. With a leg gully, short leg, square leg and long leg in place, Bravo peppered Samaraweera with the short stuff, hoping the batsman would fall for it, and Samaraweera was all too happy to oblige.”On this type of wicket you will be playing and missing a lot outside the off stump,” Samaraweera said. When you try to be too defensive also that happens. At the end of the day I missed another hundred. It was lack of concentration. I am really disappointed because I fell into their trap.”Yesterday (first day) when I came at the close everyone appreciated my knock of 25 not out. That gave a lot of confidence for me. We knew if we could survive the first hour today we could dominate the bowling, and that is what happened.”Samaraweera was the more enterprising of the pair, beating his captain to his half-century. When questioned whether he was trying to prove a point that he could score fast and be in contention for a place in the World Cup squad, he replied, “This year my one-day average is 49, I don’t why I didn’t go to Australia. My duty is scoring runs. I am hoping for the best.”Samaraweera was confident that weather permitting, Sri Lanka had the bowling armoury to win the Test. “We have to bat well tomorrow and if we can get 400 plus it is a big score on this wicket. After that the new ball bowlers and two spinners should be able to do the job.”

Having come back strongly in the second Test against West Indies, Sri Lanka are likely to field an unchanged team for the decisive third Test against West Indies in Pallakele

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Pallekele30-Nov-2010Having come back strongly in the second Test against West Indies, Sri Lanka are likely to field an unchanged team for the decisive third Test against West Indies in Pallakele.”Barring injuries not many changes are likely,” the home captain Kumar Sangakkara said. “We will have to see how the guys pull up after today’s practice. We will probably decide whether a change is needed in the spin department, but other than that I think we are fine.”Sri Lanka who have not lost a home Test series since 2006 and Sangakkara said he would be disappointed if his team could not win this series, tied 0-0 going into the decider.”The series will be decided in this Test, provided there’s play on all five days,” Sangakkara said. “We have to be positive and keep thinking that we can beat West Indies by playing some good cricket. We have improved in the last Test and we need to keep getting better and hopefully we need to play some solid cricket.”It looks a good wicket but there’s still a bit of rain. Unfortunately with the weather around you have to see what it does. It looks drier than the R Premadasa Stadium wicket. In Kandy, conditions can change early morning. It helps all the bowlers from the first day onwards. It’s good to bat on. It will be a wicket where it’ll be difficult to bat on in the first hour maybe, but will probably get better.”Hopefully it will be better than R Premadasa, in the sense more bounce and pace, so that batsmen can play shots even on the first day. Other than that, I think, it will help all the bowlers. We are expecting it to break up sooner and help our spinners.”Sangakkara compared the new stadium to the ground in Centurion, South Africa. “I honestly think that this will be the nicest stadium of all when it’s finished. It looks fantastic. The view for the crowd is nice. Once it’s finished it will be nice. When they started it was like Centurion. It’s a long walk and it’s a beautiful ground.”

Round-up of the third day of the fourth round of the Ranji Trophy Plate League

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Dec-2010

Group A

Madhya Pradesh went top of the Group A table after an innings and 239-run victory over Jharkhand at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. MP needed just 37.3 overs to bowl out the visitors for 140 on the third day. Seamer Amit Sharma and Anand Rajan took four wickets each, giving Rajan eight for the match. MP’s victory had been set up on the first two days after they bowled Jharkhand out for 131 and then piled on 510. It was always going to be an uphill struggle for Jharkhand from then on, and they surrendered meekly. Their highest scorer in the whole match was wicketkeeper Shiv Gautam who got 32 in the second innings. Jharkhand remain at second-last position in the table.It was a strong fightback from Hyderabad on the third day at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium as they brought themselves to within 131 runs of Goa’s big first innings score and still have five wickets in hand. Captain Ravi Teja set the platform with his 126 and then Syed Quadri got 68 to take the hosts to 351 for 5 at stumps. Having avoided the follow-on, they have all but assured themselves of a draw but still need to do a lot of work to avoided conceding the first-innings lead and with it three points. Reagan Pinto’s excellent match continued as he followed up his century in the first-innings with two wickets with his part-time legspin for Goa.

Group B

Services set Vidarbha 353 to win in the fourth innings – a stern ask considering the pitch has been offering the bowlers plenty of assistance and Vidarbha haven’t scored more than 300 since their first game of the season. Services had the advantage at the start of the third day at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, having dismissed the hosts for 147 on the second. Openers Pratik Desai, captain Yashpal Singh and Soomik Chatarjee drove home that advantage, getting half-centuries to take Services to 265 for 6. They then declared to give themselves an entire day to bowl Vidarbha out.A 93-run stand by AP Singh and Parvez Rassol for the sixth wicket helped Jammu & Kashmir avoid a possible innings defeat, but Andhra Pradesh are still in the driver’s seat at the Gandhi Memorial Science College Ground in Jammu. The pair came in when J & K were 60 for 5 in their second innings, still 63 behind Andhra. Rassol was the aggressor hitting nine fours and two sixes in his 68 not out, while Singh was unbeaten on 39 at stumps. Captain Syed Sahabuddin and legspinner Sairaj Bahutule had given Andhra five early breakthroughs after Bodapati Sumanth’s 136 had helped them to a first innings total of 376. The overnight pair of Sumanth and Sahabuddin, who got 71, took AP from a precarious position of 219 for 6 in the morning to a strong total. J & K are now 30 runs ahead but will need to make their last five wickets last well into tomorrow to stave off a defeat.Maharashtra’s match against Kerala is heading towards a draw after another rain-hit day at the the Nehru Stadium in Kochi. The visitors accelerated their scoring-rate on the third day, scoring 130 runs in 29.5 overs. Sangram Atitkar scored 109 and Maharashtra declared at 347 for 8. Kerala played just one over and were 5 for 0. Maharashtra will be hoping for a whole day’s play tomorrow so that they can try to bowl out Kerala and at least pick up three points for a first-innings lead.

Canterbury beat Wellington in a close game by five runs at the Aorangi Oval in Timaru to nudge ahead of them in the points table in the HRV Cup and keep their hopes of making the finals

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2010Canterbury beat Wellington in a close game by five runs at the Aorangi Oval in Timaru to nudge ahead of them in the points table in the HRV Cup and keep their hopes of making the finals.Wellington won the toss and elected to field but it was Canterbury who got off to a good start with openers Rob Nicol and Peter Fulton (25) putting on 65 in the first six overs before Fulton was dismissed. Nicol celebrated his inclusion in New Zealand’s preliminary 30-man squad for the 2011 World Cup by top-scoring with a blistering 85 off 48 balls. Handy contributions from Dean Brownlie (22) and Michael Papps (33), together with Johan van der Wath’s cameo of 22 off just 9 balls at the end carried Canterbury to a competitive 207 for 6 off their allotted overs.Wellington started their chase in positive fashion with Jesse Ryder and England import Luke Wright putting on 115 in the first 9 overs. van der Wath struck to pick up the crucial wicket of Wright and Canterbury were soon back in the game as Carl Frauenstein dismissed Ryder and had Grant Elliot run out in quick succession. James Franklin and Stewart Rhodes tried to get Canterbury’s chase back on track with a 49-run fourth-wicket partnership. However Canterbury lost the momentum when Frauenstein picked up the crucial wicket of Franklin. They needed 26 runs off 15 balls but failed to get over the line as they only managed to reach 202 for 4.

Central Districts left-arm spinners George Worker and English import Ian Blackwell led them to a comfortable win over Northern Districts at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. CD needed only 17.3 overs to chase ND’s 110 and pick up a six-wicket win. The win means CD are level with their opponents on points at second in the table, with just one more round of games to be played before the final.Worker and Blackwell took five wickets between them for 35 runs in eight overs, and stalled a Northern Districts innings that was motoring on till the last ball of the eighth over when Herschelle Gibbs was trapped lbw by Blackwell for 7. That left Northern Districts at 67 for 2. Another left-arm spinner, England’s Michael Yardy, then picked up the big wicket of Brad Wilson (37) in the next over. Worker got into the act in the tenth over, taking the wickets of Anton Devcich and James Marshall to leave ND in trouble at 71 for 5.Scott Styris tried to lead a recovery with his 19, but failed to receive any support as none of the remaining six batsmen reached double figures as ND were all out in 18.5 overs. Worker finished with 3 for 18. A large chunk of the early runs came off fast bowler Adam Milne, who was named in New Zealand’s Twenty20 squad for their series against Pakistan. He went at 11.50 in his two overs.Central Districts’ chase suffered two early setbacks after fast bowler Graeme Aldridge dismissed Peter Ingram and Worker to leave them at 13 for 2. Captain Jamie How steadied the ship with his 35, and Ross Taylor, who will captain New Zealand in the Twenty20s against Pakistan, took his team home with 35 off 29.

England’s injury-hit bowling attack is being pushed to the limits after two more quicks picked up problems in Brisbane

Andrew McGlashan in Brisbane30-Jan-2011England’s injury-hit bowling attack is being pushed to the limits after two more quicks picked up problems in Brisbane. Chris Tremlett was ruled out of the fifth one-day international with a side strain and Ajmal Shahzad limped off during the match with a hamstring problem.Shahzad suffered his injury two balls into his eighth over and left the field having completed it at reduced pace. Both he and Tremlett will go for scans on Monday when the team travels to Sydney and it leaves England short of cover for the final two matches. Steven Finn made his ODI debut at the Gabba and Chris Woakes was recalled to the line-up in place of Michael Yardy.Woakes enjoyed a memorable game as he claimed 6 for 45, the second best figures for England in ODIs, but the continued problems to England’s World Cup bowlers is a serious concern.Shahzad joins Stuart Broad (stomach), Tim Bresnan (calf) and Graeme Swann (knee/back) on the casualty list with the latter two having flown home from the tour. Only James Anderson of England’s first-choice World Cup attack hasn’t been injured on tour but he was rested for the start of this series.”We’re beginning to run out of bowlers now,” Strauss said. “Woakesy came in and did brilliantly today. He hit the deck hard, bowled some really good deliveries. That delivery to get rid of [Cameron] White was an absolute scorcher. Finny came in after not playing for a long time and did some good work as well.”Strauss added they may need to call in reinforcements even though the tour only has seven days to run and it may mean scouring Australia for any potential options. The England Lions have recently begun their tour of West Indies and it’s a long journey to get someone from the Caribbean to Australia who then may not be needed.England’s problems could be eased a little by the surface in Sydney. They didn’t play any spinner in Brisbane, but they are likely to need one at the SCG which would mean a recall for either Yardy or James Tredwell who could replace Shahzad, while Luke Wright is also in the squad. One option Strauss ruled out was an early return for Broad who has rejoined the tour for rehabilitation from the abdominal injury he sustained during the second Test at Adelaide.

Umpiring in the World Cup has run into fresh controversy with William Porterfield criticising Asoka de Silva’s decision to give Gary Wilson out lbw despite replays showing he had offered a shot and was hit outside the line

Nagraj Gollapudi in Mohali11-Mar-2011Umpiring in the World Cup has run into fresh controversy with Ireland captain William Porterfield strongly criticising Asoka de Silva’s decision to give Gary Wilson out lbw despite replays showing the batsman had offered a shot to a delivery that replays clearly indicated had hit him outside the line. Porterfield’s comments – unusually sharp for a team captain – came after a match which, he said, turned on that decision.”I am still trying to understand it myself. The feedback we have got so far is that the ball hit him outside the line and the umpire judged him [to be] not playing a shot. I don’t know how many people agree with that,” Porterfield said after Ireland’s 44-run defeat against West Indies.The ball in question, delivered by West Indies captain Darren Sammy, pitched outside the off stump and cut in to hit the outside of Wilson’s front pad. Wilson was trying to nudge it but failed but the Sri Lankan official thought he was offering no shot and raised his finger instantly. A surprised Wilson asked for a review. Third umpire Bruce Oxenford told de Silva that the ball had hit outside off and would, according to HawkEye, go on to hit the outside of the off stump. Replays on the big screen made that clear as also the fact that Wilson was actually trying to play the shot. Disappointed and confused, Wilson asked de Silva to refer the review this time. It was an extraordinary moment, which bordered on the comical, as de Silva went back to Oxenford once again. In the end, de Silva stuck to his stand and Wilson charged out, furiously shaking his head.”If you see the replay on the big screen he could have still been able to reverse his decision from there. It was clearly seen he was playing the shot. (And) even though he [de Silva] judged that (wrongly) in the first place he saw the replays on the big screen,” Porterfield said. He said that he did not have much time to discuss the issue with Wilson, who was not “in a great state of mind” when he came off the ground. “The word we are getting at the minute is the umpire went back upstairs to check if he hit the ball before the impact on the pad and if it was pad first, or bat first. Surely if you are asking if it was pad first or bat first, you know he is playing a shot. In my opinion they got it wrong.”Asked if the DRS was proving to be a nuisance rather than a help, Porterfield said he would not blame the reviews per se. “I would like to say it (DRS) was working but if you get a decision like that then I don’t know. When you have all the technology, it is supposed to eradicate the mistakes and for me that did not happen this time.”Interestingly, Porterfield – speaking at the post-match press conference – had to stop briefly as Phil Simmons, the Ireland coach, walked in to have a few private words with a team official, who in turn relayed the message to Porterfield. The exchange, the media was told, was “off the record”.Porterfield admitted that Wilson’s wicket was the turning point in Ireland’s chase. Wilson had showed a wise head in the company of Ed Joyce, sharing a vital 91-run partnership for the fourth wicket. After Joyce departed Wilson took the onus on him and was playing fluently. Ireland needed 77 from 51 balls and the batting Powerplay was yet to be taken when Wilson was ruled out. “It was the pivotal moment in the game. It was not one of the things that cost us the game as there were other things we did,” Porterfield said. “But it was a pretty crucial decision. He was going well. If we had taken the Powerplay we never know especially with Cusy [Alex Cusack] and John boy [Mooney] to come there.”One man who was more than happy to see the back of Wilson was Sammy. “I was happy that we got him out. That was the main focus for us, he back in the pavilion,” he said.But at the time of the incident, Sammy was intensely chatting to Wilson after de Silva’s original decision. Asked if he saw Wilson’s point, Sammy said personally he would not have argued with the umpire. “Umpires have been in charge ever since I started playing cricket. He did what he had to do,” Sammy said. So what was he was making Wilson aware of? “I personally tried to tell him you know what, at the end of the day, the umpire said you are out so don’t hang around because you don’t really make an issue and get fined. We learned as a team that if the umpire says you are out, unless he tells you to hold on, you walk. You can always give your feedback in the captain’s report.”Incidentally, Ireland were fined. But for another crime. Apparently they had bowled an over short and as a consequence Porterfield was penalised 20% of his match fee while the rest of the team had to take a 10% cut.

MS Dhoni said that Indian cricket was in its current position because of the 1983 World Cup win and the emergence of Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid

Sharda Ugra in Mumbai03-Apr-2011Before he led India to a World Cup victory, MS Dhoni’s earliest identity as a cricketer had been attached to the Twenty20 format. It was India’s victory in the World Twenty20 under Dhoni that was one of the factors that led to the speedy launch of the Indian Premier League. Dhoni then led his team, the Chennai Super Kings, to a double last year, winning the IPL and the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa.Yet, more than once during this World Cup, Dhoni has demonstrated that he is conscious of the course taken by Indian cricket in the last three decades and where Saturday’s victory now stands.At the media conference following India’s six-wicket victory, Dhoni was asked by an English reporter to explain what the World Cup victory actually meant to Indians who, Dhoni was told, did not enjoy much success in other world-level sport. Yuvraj Singh, the World Cup’s Player of the Tournament sitting next to Dhoni, raised his eyebrow, and his captain took the opportunity to say that India had been growing as a nation that supports sport, citing the examples from shooting, badminton, hockey and football.But cricket, Dhoni said, “was special” to Indians because of the change that the 1983 victory achieved for Indian cricket. “People started loving the sport and you then saw two individuals making their debut, Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar.” He then said that the successful careers of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, which began in 1996, marked the next step. “This was the chain of players because of whom we are in this position right now. We earn a lot of money, we get a lot respect and what we are trying to do is to pass it onto the next generation.”Three of the players mentioned by Dhoni were at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night; Tendulkar a part of Dhoni’s team, Kumble in the audience and new commentator-columnist Ganguly, who stood at the boundary on the far side of dressing room from where he watched the Indian team go past on its lap of honour with Tendulkar sitting on Yusuf Pathan’s shoulders. Ganguly, who led India to the final of the 2003 World Cup and who still responds to India’s performance as if he were a part of the team, was beaming. “What a win,” he said, “what a performance.”Dhoni was asked to compare his two biggest victories as India captain and said, that while every format was “special” in its own way, “I have always loved the ODI format. Because I always think you see a lot of variety in one-day cricket.” The final he said had been the best example. “In this game, we lost a couple of early wickets and then you have two batsmen struggling to get runs.” He said that the one-day game showed “a glimpse” of what may not be Test cricket but was a shortened version of its demands.”Two batsmen looking for survival and looking to get runs at the same time. At the end you saw a slog, from Yuvraj and me. And at the end of it,” Dhoni said, “you see a result.” It is a summary that would please the ICC enormously which, after the unfortunate 2007 event in the Caribbean, has needed a successful World Cup to prove to its community that the three formats of the sport could survive. Between that World Cup and this one, there has been a mushrooming of the Twenty20 leagues, and was seen as a threat to the 50-over format. Now with the captain of the 2011 World Cup winners, and the biggest audience and market in the sport, enthusiastically endorsing the format, the ICC has further proof of what it has always maintained: that the 50-over game can play a few more innings.

Kings XI Punjab will be replacing England allrounder Stuart Broad and Dimitri Mascarenhas in their squad for the 2011 IPL

Tariq Engineer23-Mar-2011Kings XI Punjab will be replacing England allrounder Stuart Broad and Dimitri Mascarenhas in their squad for the 2011 IPL, as both players are unavailable for the tournament due to injuries, a franchise official has said. Broad picked up a side strain during the World Cup, while Mascarenhas has not yet recovered from surgery to fix his achilles injury.”We are still in the process of identifying their replacements,” Aravinder Singh, the chief operating officer for Punjab, told ESPNcricinfo. “I am in touch with the coach and the captain.”Under IPL rules, the replacements have to be chosen from the pool of players who went unsold in the January auction, and cannot be paid more than the players they are replacing, though they can be paid less, depending on their base price in the auction. This limits the choice of players to those whose base price is equivalent to, or less than, the players being replaced. Broad was bought for $400,000 while Mascarenhas was bought for $100,000. Both replacements will be for the 2011 season only.Punjab opens the tournament on April 10 against Sahara Pune Warriors at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. The team began its preparations for the tournament on Monday with a six-day fitness camp at the HPCA Stadium, with the final camp for the full team to be held at Mohali from April 2 to April 8.Mumbai Indians have also signed a replacement player, according to a BCCI statement listing the players in each team, with Sri Lanka fast bowler Dilhara Fernando coming in for Australia fast bowler Clint Mckay, who was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left foot in January.
Pune are the only team to sign the full complement of 30 players, while the Kolkata Knight Riders have the fewest players on their roster with 20. The defending champions Chennai Super Kings have 23 players.The Deccan Chargers, who have 27 players in their squad, still have US $1.49 million out of their allotted $9 million, the most of any franchise, while Punjab has approximately $1.46 million left over. Rajasthan Royals, whose salary cap was reduced by a court order, have spent all of their money. The Mumbai Indians, one of two teams to retain the maximum four players, have $1739 remaining. Chennai, the other team to keep four players, have $15,435 left over.

Sri Lanka Cricket has decided to allow its cricketers to play in the IPL till May 18, after a meeting with sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Apr-2011Sri Lanka Cricket has decided to allow its cricketers to play in the IPL till May 18, after a meeting with sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage. The board had earlier asked the players to return on May 5 in order to prepare for the tour of England, which begins with a practice match against Middlesex on May 14. However, they have now issued a release saying the players have only to arrive in time for the second warm-up game, against England Lions, starting May 19. The first Test is on May 26.”We are favourably looking at giving players more time to play the IPL before joining the team for the England tour,” Aluthgamage told . “We have excellent relations with the government of India and the Indian cricket board. We don’t want to upset, or embarrass India.”He, however, denied that Sri Lanka were succumbing to pressure from the BCCI. He said the initial decision to call the players back early was taken by the new selection panel headed by Duleep Mendis in order to give the players time to prepare for the series, and it was not intended to spark any controversy. “The selectors felt the boys were playing too many one-dayers and Twenty20s for the past two months. They wanted the players to come early and adjust to English conditions and new changes in team management. There is no sinister move.”As seven of the 16 players selected for the Test tour are involved in the IPL, SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga stated that the selectors would pick an additional three to four players to make up the XI for the tour opener against Middlesex.SLC had originally given the Sri Lanka players till May 20 to play in the IPL, and following their change in the date, the BCCI had contacted Sri Lanka’s board asking them to reconsider. The decision had sparked mixed reactions among the Sri Lanka players, with Muttiah Muralitharan criticising it, while new captain Tillakaratne Dilshan said he did not mind it since playing for the country came before playing the IPL.Sri Lanka’s players will now miss only the last week of the IPL. Lasith Malinga has not been slected for the Tests, since he had told the board he was injured, but he has been asked to return to Sri Lanka to undergo a rehabilitation programme.