MS Dhoni has been ruled out of the first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong because of a back strain

Sriram Veera in Chittagong16-Jan-2010MS Dhoni has been ruled out of the first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong because of a back strain. Virender Sehwag, his deputy, will lead India in the match scheduled to start on Sunday, and Dinesh Karthik will replace him as the keeper, the Indian team manager Arshad Ayub confirmed.Dhoni suffered a back spasm during morning practice, retired to the dressing room and sent Virender Sehwag for the traditional captain’s pre-match conference. However Sehwag, in his inimitable style, just offered: “He is fine, just taking a break and he is enjoying in the dressing room.””The spasm continued and refused to go away,” Ayub told Cricinfo. “Dhoni didn’t want to take any chances and decided at the team-meeting in the evening that he wouldn’t play the Test. Karthik will replace him.” Karthik played two games as an opener in the recently concluded tri-series.Dhoni had earlier suffered a back spasm during India’s tour of New Zealand early last year and, as a result, had to sit out of the second Test in Napier, which ended in a draw. Sehwag led India in Napier in Dhoni’s absence and will be captaining his country in a Test for the third time when he steps out tomorrow.

A round-up of the RBS Twenty20 Cup matches that took place on March 1

Cricinfo staff01-Mar-2010

Group C

One of the tournament heavies Faisalabad Wolves began their campaign by crushing Abbottabad Rhinos by 90 runs at the National Stadium. Mohammad Hafeez and Asif Hussain set up the win with an opening stand of 89 before Asid Afridi, the left-arm seamer on debut, dismissed Hussain. Afridi later made a big impact in the final over, taking four wickets in five balls to leave Faisalabad at 165 for 7. The astute Misbah-ul-Haq, with 40 off 26 balls including four sixes, ensured it didn’t derail his side from an impressive total.Abbottabad’s chase was never on, throttled early by Samiullah Khan Niazi. It turned out to be an evening for left-arm seamers as Samiullah dented the top order with three wickets. Abbottabad then lost three wickets with no addition to the score, including two to the excellent Shahid Nazir and at 57 for 7, the contest was long gone. Saeed Ajmal cleaned up the tail to finish with 3 for 4. Abbottabad are a traditionally weak side but were strengthened this year by the inclusion of a number of Peshawar players such as Yasir Hameed, Yasir Shah and Riffatullah Mohmand and will look to improve results.

Group D

Karachi Dolphins got off to a winning start making light work of Hyderabad Hawks at the National Stadium. They had much to thank the visitors for pressing the self-destruct button before crawling to 119, a target that was always going to be easy.Opener Shahzaib Hasan, a World Twenty20 winner, provided the fireworks during the chase, smashing 46 off 21 balls, including six fours and two sixes. Once Karachi had reached the halfway mark in just the fourth over, Khalid Latif continued the momentum, blitzing 32 off 15 balls. The openers’ charge was enough as the hosts sealed the win in the 10th over. Hyderabad had made a watchful start with opener Sharjeel Khan managing a near-run-a-ball 39, but three run-outs in the space of three overs meant they ended on a well below-par score. Fawad Alam was Karachi’s most successful bowler with 2 for 20.

Group A

Multan Tigers recorded their second consecutive win after cruising past Quetta Bears by seven wickets. Mohammad Hafeez and the tall Mohammad Irfan – at six foot ten, one of the tallest bowlers going – set it up by sharing seven wickets between them to restrict Quetta to a poor 99. Rameez Alam then scored an unbeaten half-century to guide them home within 17 overs. Irfan and Hafeez cut through the middle order to reduce Quetta to 59 for 5 and it was a position from which they never recovered. Hafeez finished with 4 for 17 while Irfan took 3 for 14 before wrapping up the innings off the penultimate ball. Multan lost Babar Ali off the first ball of the chase but Rameez piloted the innings to help them coast home.

Tim May, the chief executive of the international players union FICA, has warned that Twenty20 cricket is ‘ripe for corruption’

Cricinfo staff16-Feb-2010Tim May, the chief executive of the international players union FICA, has warned that Twenty20 cricket is ‘ripe for corruption’.May, a former Australian offspinner, told magazine “Lord Condon, who headed up the ICC’s Anti-corruption and Security Unit, said only last year that we can never think we have this cancer beaten. Twenty20 is just ripe for corruption – the shorter the game the more influence each particular incident can have. So I think it opens up a great deal of opportunities for the bookmakers to try and corrupt players into providing various different outcomes in the game, if not the result itself. Cricket needs to be very, very careful.”Cricket only recently emerged from a nasty episode of revelations about match-fixing when in 2000 Hansie Conje, then South Africa captain, admitted to taking money from bookmakers. It spiralled into a full enquiry headed by Condon’s team at the ICC. Since then the game has stayed clean but the rise of Twenty20 has created new vulnerable areas. In July last year Dave Richardson, the ICC general manager, said the ICC was ‘concerned’ and that the IPL will “inevitably attract the interest of match-fixers and people like that.”With Lalit Modi recently announcing that the second season of the Twenty20 Champions League will clash with the climax of the English domestic season, May also criticised the ‘arrogant’ decision making of the IPL executives.”The refusal to grant players the ability to review the security arrangements and the decision of the IPL and its franchises not to recognise or deal with any players’ managers or agents, is self-defeating. Its decision-making is very arrogant. The attitude is that they’re the only game in town, they’re the biggest game in town and, as long as they pay these huge amounts of money, they can do what they like. That may not always be the case.”Seeking avenues to protect the Test game, May said a Test championship would add much-needed context to the format but fears that political wrangling of the ICC members could prevent it from developing. “At the moment it’s just a mad scramble of bilateral series that mean nothing. A Test championship over a period of one or two years would increase the value of those contests and make it possible to play significantly less cricket but maintain or increase commercial revenues,” he said.”The political nature of the ICC board and its members means it’s going to be a difficult concept to sell. There is an over-riding need for boards to be absolutely in control of their destiny, and going with a Test championship would hand over a lot of power to the ICC. A lot of boards don’t want to do this – that selfish mind-set isn’t in the best interests of the game.”Ahead of England’s departure to the UAE for two Twenty20s against Pakistan, the England offspinner Graeme Swann said the squad was fully aware of the dangers of match-fixing. “There are guys from the [ICC] Anti-Corruption Unit who travel all year round with us and everyone is fully educated about the dangers. It probably does go on in some form with some teams and some players, but you never know who it is. I certainly don’t think any of this England team could be considered match-fixers.”We haven’t been given any warnings specifically for this trip. You’d have to be an absolute idiot to do it.”

Dirk Nannes has always felt comfortable in India and is a definite starter in the IPL tournament beginning on Friday

Cricinfo staff07-Mar-2010Dirk Nannes has always felt comfortable in India and is a definite starter in the IPL tournament beginning on Friday. Nannes left Melbourne on Saturday to join Delhi Daredevils and was confident the security and safety problems would not be an issue during the event.”I have always felt pretty good in India,” Nannes said in the Sunday Herald Sun. “Security can be a bit of perception. If you feel safe, then you probably are safe. But the reality may be completely different.”I wasn’t comfortable in coming to a decision myself, but, luckily, the Australian Cricketers’ Association has done a lot of investigating and has been pushing to make it a lot safer for us. They think if things keep progressing the way they are, then things will be fine from next week and the start of the tournament.”Nannes has retired from first-class action to prolong his career in the shorter formats, which includes representing Australia in Twenty20s. He has played five T20s for Australia and his left-arm fast, which can top 155kph, is a daunting prospect for batsmen as they chase boundaries.”My body simply cannot handle playing first-class cricket,” he said. “Even if I made myself available, there was no chance of me playing the last few [Sheffield Shield] games.”I have a back issue. It’s fine for playing the shorter forms, but if I was asked to bowl 17 overs one day I couldn’t back up and bowl again the next day.” After the IPL Nannes is hoping to be part of Australia’s World Twenty20 campaign, having played in last year’s tournament for the Netherlands.

Time is running out for Deccan Chargers, for another defeat, their sixth in a row, could all but end their hopes of reaching the semi-final

The Preview by Siddhartha Talya07-Apr-2010

Match facts

Thursday, April 8
Start time 2000 (1430GMT)Adam Gilchrist hasn’t converted starts into big scores•Associated Press

Big Picture

In the league phase comprising 56 games, the eight teams have had their chances to rectify declines, build on successful runs, reassess failing strategies and work out winning combinations. But time is running out for some, especially Deccan Chargers, for another defeat, their sixth in a row, could all but end their hopes of reaching the semi-final. They are currently seventh, and will remain there if they lose on Thursday to Royal Challengers Bangalore. Given their poor net run-rate, and the rush for a knockout berth among at least three other better-placed teams, their prospects remain bleak.Bangalore, currently ranked fourth, are strong contenders but have experienced a blip, losing three of their last four games. A win against Deccan, added to their superior net run-rate, will propel them to second place and distance them further from Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings, who, too, are competing for a spot in the final four. A loss will only make that scrap more intense.Ross Taylor’s arrival prompted a few changes in the Bangalore line-up – they left out Dale Steyn and Manish Pandey for their previous game, a strategy they might reconsider, given the margin of defeat against Delhi Daredevils. Aiming to recover from the recent downturn, Bangalore will want to have their best available team to surge forward with four games to play after Thursday.Deccan were on the verge of arresting their losing streak before panic set in against Rajasthan in the final over of the chase, costing them the game by two runs. None among their last seven batsmen reached double-figures, and another capitulation is something they can ill-afford in troubled times.

Form guide (most recent first)

Royal Challengers Bangalore: LWLLW

Deccan Chargers: LLLLL

Team talk

Cameron White may have to make way for Steyn, while Abhimanyu Mithun could step out for Pandey.Deccan have problems in the middle order, with meager contributions from the Indian players. Monish Mishra, Venugopal Rao, Anirudh Singh and Azhar Bilakhia have, largely, failed and there is little that Deccan, apart from shuffling them around, can do. If Herschelle Gibbs is called back, Deccan may have to leave out an all-round option in Dwayne Smith.

Head to head

Bangalore 3 Deccan 2
It’s the 40th match of the IPL but the two teams haven’t met yet this season. In the inaugural edition, Bangalore sneaked home by three wickets at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, and won more comfortably in Hyderabad.The teams shared honours in the league stages in South Africa, Deccan winning by 24 runs in Cape Town and Bangalore, thanks to Pandey’s century, by 12 runs in Centurion. Deccan, however, had the last laugh, beating Bangalore in the final by 6 runs at the Wanderers.

In the spotlight

Ross Taylor: In his 10-ball stay against Delhi, Taylor showed how valuable he is to the Bangalore outfit. He blazed three sixes to race to 22, and was one batsman who threatened to scale down Delhi’s strong total before being trapped in front. His power-packed strokeplay, and the ability to clear the boundary with ease, can be especially dispiriting to his opponents in the death overs.Adam Gilchrist: With just one half-century in nine games, and an average of 23.22, Gilchrist has confined himself to attractive cameos – five out of nine times has he scored above 20 – but failed to press on. With a struggling middle order, Deccan need a greater boost at the top and no one is better equipped to do that than their captain.

Prime Numbers

• Deccan’s run-rate in the last five overs this IPL has been the least among all teams. They have scored at 7.74 an over – Bangalore are second-highest with 10.38 – and have lost 28 wickets at an average of 11.75, the joint-lowest.
• Deccan have struck one six more than Bangalore so far – 48 to 47. Chennai lead the pack with 68, followed by Rajasthan at 66.

Quotes

“I think we could say that all of us in our team had a couple of glimpses of fantastic performances and probably too many glimpses of disappointing performances.”
Adam Gilchrist on his team’s inconsistency.”We played Mumbai Indians at DY Patil [one of Deccan’s designated ‘home venues’, in Mumbai] and not one spectator supported us. Sometimes the crowd factor plays a part. Your supporters give you that extra push in crunch matches.”

Rohit Sharma rues the lack of support for Deccan.

Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, has placed the blame for the current crisis in the IPL squarely on Lalit Modi, for he was entrusted with the running of the league

Nagraj Gollapudi26-Apr-2010Apart from the obvious issues relating to the fate of Lalit Modi and the charges against him, there was one key question surrounding Monday’s press conference following the IPL governing council meeting: What was the council’s responsibility in overseeing the working of the IPL, and what was the extent of its culpability in the current mess?The response of Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, was three-fold: first, the council was not informed of most of the chairman’s work; second, that it was not the job of the council members to scrutinise the work anyway, and, third, that there was a full-fledged secretariat – and the hired help of IMG – to ensure things were run in a professional manner.”An institution functions on trust,” Manohar said. “If I have to do all the jobs, I don’t need executives. Why do I need a secretary? Why do I need other people? Because even in your institution your managing director does not look into where you’re going, what you’re doing and if you commit something wrong, your managing director is not responsible for that.”If you are expecting every governing council member to come here every morning at 10 and leave at 10 in the night to look at what is happening everywhere, then we don’t need the other staff which is there. Then we don’t need to pay IMG Rs 27 crore [approx $6 million] and we don’t need a CEO to running the IPL. It is their job to do all these things.”He expanded on the theme, essentially saying the council entrusted Modi with running of the league and left it at that. “Any public organization functions on trust because each and every person can’t go and check every aspect or each and every document in an organization. There are huge companies that are run by people and those people, once a decision is approved, don’t go and look at the document whether it is properly executed or not. It is the job of the professionals and the executives who are appointed by the institution to do that job.”An allegation is being made and the media is saying all the members of the governing council are party to all the decisions. Now most of the contracts have been entered into without the consent of the governing council and they’ve been brought to the governing council after the contract was signed. So the governing council has no other option and are presented with a fait accompli,” Manohar reason, before citing an example.”I came here [Mumbai] three days in advance to look into all the documents and contracts in view of the ongoing controversy. I called Sundar Raman [the IPL CEO] because on that day in the evening there was an IPL awards function. I asked for the contract of that function and I was told ‘Sir, there was no contract. The contract terms were finalised last night.’ And this he informs me at 3 in the afternoon when the function is going to be held at 7 in the evening.”Thereafter, if this issue comes before the governing council, what do you expect the governing council to do? Do you expect the governing council to say, ‘No, we reject this contract and we’re going to cancel this function’, when the function is already over,” Manohar asked.Manohar’s apportioning of the blame squarely on Modi, absolving the governing council of its responsibility in the matter, is at odds with the views of MAK Pataudi, a council member and now one of the three former cricketers entrusted with working out a mechanism for the next IPL season. Pataudi had last week said the governing council had been a failure because the members should have been more aware of what was happening.Manohar was also questioned on the issue of professionalism within the IPL, in answer to which he pointed to the appointment of IMG to help run the tournament. “As far as the IPL is concerned, we knew that this is a huge and valuable property. Therefore we appointed professionals like the IMG, who conduct tournaments like Wimbledon and the FIFA world cup. And we are paying them a huge sum of Rs 27 crore for all operational things.”It the duty of IMG, because they are the corporate entity and their job is to look after the professional things and the normal functioning of IPL games. We also appointed a professional CEO, Sundar Raman, for the IPL who is also paid a huge salary. We have a separate staff for IPL and so I don’t understand what media means by saying `professional people’ for running the event,” he said.

Brendan Nash, the West Indies middle-order batsman, has said his team is desperate to end its losing run and turn things for the better in the Test series against South Africa that begins on Thursday

Cricinfo staff10-Jun-2010Brendan Nash, the West Indies middle-order batsman, has said his team is desperate to end its losing run and turn things around for the Test series against South Africa that begins on Thursday. West Indies are yet to win a game on this tour, losing both Twenty20 internationals and being at the receiving end of a 5-0 thrashing in the ODI series.”We’re sick of losing. We don’t like losing. We don’t enjoy it, but it is not something we can just turn around in one day,” Nash told 103 FM ahead of the first Test in Trinidad. “It is going to be a slow process, but we’re trying to do the right thing.”Nobody wants to lose, we’re doing what we can with the resources we have and the structures we have to try and turn things around.”Nash sought inspiration from West Indies’ performance against England in Trinidad last year, when they held on to draw the final Test and win the series. Nash scored a century in that game, his first in international cricket, and has been in excellent form of late. He had a very successful tour of Bangladesh with West Indies A, being dismissed just once in the two four-day games, scoring 202 runs in the process, and notched up two half-centuries in three limited-overs matches.”I hope everyone remembers the series last year against England. It came down to the last match. We were one up and we held on for a draw to win the series,” he said. Hopefully the Trinis put their minds back to that and support us. That’s what we needed at that time and that’s what we need at this time.”We haven’t had the best of runs in the shorter format of the game. (Tests) are different and we showed some good signs against Australia at the end of last year, and this is the next Test series since then so hopefully the fans will come out and support us.”Nash also said training sessions for the teams have been interrupted by sporadic showers. “(Practice has been) a little bit disrupted” he said. “We’ve made the most of it and tried to get on the field [when] we could and get in the indoor nets.”

Tasmania will join the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) for the 2010-11, taking the competition to seven teams

Cricinfo staff15-Jun-2010Tasmania will join the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) for the 2010-11, taking the competition to seven teams. The Tasmanian Roar joined the women’s national Twenty20 competition last summer and will take the final step by being added to the 50-over tournament.The WNCL gained a sixth team last season with the addition of the ACT. James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia the acceptance of Tasmania into the WNCL was testament to the efforts of Cricket Tasmania to develop women’s cricket in the state.”The team produced some encouraging performances in the interstate Twenty20 competition last year and regular exposure to matches at this level will help drive women’s cricket participation in Tasmania,” Sutherland said.”Female cricket participation in Australia has risen dramatically in recent years and today’s announcement, along with the continued success of the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars, will only inspire more young girls to pick up a bat and ball.”

Ed Cowan and George Bailey slammed centuries to give Australia A an overwhelming advantage on the second day at Townsville

Cricinfo staff26-Jun-2010Sri Lanka A 78 and 32 for 0 trail Australia A 402 (Bailey 154*, Cowan 126) by 292 runs

ScorecardGeorge Bailey made an unbeaten 154 with 14 fours and six sixes•Getty Images

Ed Cowan and George Bailey slammed centuries to give Australia A an overwhelming advantage on the second day at Townsville. It was hard work for the Sri Lanka A bowlers as the hosts stretched their lead to 324 before declaring.The day began with Usman Khawaja getting to a half-century. Khawaja and Cowan made steady progress before the former was dismissed for 69 by Sachithra Senanayake, nearly 23 overs in to the day’s play. The pair had added 141 for the second wicket, and that was followed by another century stand, this time between Cowan and Bailey. Cowan was eventually dismissed by Nuwan Pradeep for 126, caught by the wicketkeeper. Bailey and Peter Forrest added 94 in quick time to take the score past 350. Bailey scored in fifth gear, smashing 14 fours and six sixes in his 154 off 138 balls. He declared at 402 for 4, leaving the visitors to bat out 11 overs till stumps.The opening pair of Lahiru Thirimanne and Tharanga Paranavitana ensured they didn’t lose a wicket. The Sri Lankans will face a test of skill and character as they look to save this game with two days remaining.

The Indian board and the ECB have formally endorsed the nomination of Alan Isaac, the chairman of New Zealand Cricket, for the post of ICC vice-president

Cricinfo staff31-Jul-2010The Indian board and the ECB have formally endorsed the nomination of Alan Isaac, the chairman of New Zealand Cricket, for the post of ICC vice-president. The official support of the two influential boards for Isaac is likely to herald the end of a contentious process that began when Australia and New Zealand jointly nominated former Australian Prime Minister John Howard for the post.The BCCI’s formal approval of Isaac was one of the decisions made by its working committee during a meeting in Mumbai on Saturday. The ECB welcomed the nomination of Isaac through a press release. “Alan Isaac is an extremely able and experienced administrator with an outstanding record in both business and public life,” ECB chairman Giles Clarke said. “He has chaired New Zealand Cricket with distinction, is extremely respected internationally and will make an excellent ICC president in due course.”Following Howard’s nomination, a number of boards raised questions about his suitability for the role. His candidature was eventually rejected by six of the ICC’s ten Full Members at the executive board meeting in Singapore in June. Isaac was put forward as a replacement for Howard after Sir John Anderson said he did not want to be ICC vice-president. Anderson was New Zealand’s original choice for the position. While Cricket Australia remains convinced Howard is the best man for the job, it nevertheless agreed to support Isaac.