BCCI shortlists Goa for Twenty20 match

PANJIM, OCT 28 – Cricket’s newest version – Twenty20 – will make its debut in Goa next year.The Board of Control for Cricket in India has agreed in principle to allot one match of the inaugural Indian Premier League, next April.

“The BCCI is more than keen to have the Twenty20 match in Goa. We are all excited about it,” Goa Cricket Association secretary Chetan Dessai told Herald late on Sunday evening.

“We are more than certain of hosting the Twenty20 at Nehru Stadium (Fatorda), disclosed Chetan.

GCA President Dayanand Narvekar, who is also the vice president of the BCCI, first made the announcement at Sunday’s Annual General Body meeting, at Porvorim.

The BCCI is yet to announce the schedule for the inaugural Indian Premier League – an offshoot of Essel Group’s Indian Cricket League — but have signed up some big names for the championship.

Shoaib Malik, Younis Khan (Pakistan), Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, A B de Villiers (South Africa), Mahela Jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne (Australia) have all made themselves available for BCCI’s ambitious Twenty20 League.

The eight-team IPL will debut in April 2008 with 59 matches spread over 44 days. The IPL will primarily be played under lights with play beginning at 5 pm.The IPL will initially start with eight teams and will offer $3 million in prize money, making it domestic cricket’s richest tournament.

India tour is last chance for Shoaib: PCB

Temperamental fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar will have one last chance to prove his mettle and silence his detractors once and for all on the most important tour of India, believes Pakistan Cricket Board chief Nasim Ashraf.

“I hope that Shoaib will be a changed man on the tour of India,” said the PCB chief. “It is his last chance and we all hope that this time he would not waste it.”

Hoping that Shoaib will play a major role in the Indian tour, the PCB chief pointed out that it will be a great chance for the bowler to silence his critics.

“Shoaib has a role to play for Pakistan,” he said. “He also has a point to prove and should give his best to silence his critics who believe he is spent force.”

Terming the Indian tour as “the most important one,” Ashraf said it is more important than the World Cup.

The PCB chief made it clear that he would like to see all the players in their best behaviour, so that they can achieve desired results.

“The tour of India is certainly the most important assignment for our team and is perhaps even more important than the World Cup,” Ashraf told Pakistan newspaper The News.

“I expect that all the players, including Shoaib Akhtar would be at their best behaviour and give their hundred per cent on the tour because we have to deliver good results against India.”

The maverick pacer is all set to be a part of Pakistan’s team to play five one-day internationals and three Tests in India during their tour starting next month.

Akhtar will complete a 13-match ban after Pakistan play their fourth one-dayer against South Africa in Multan and will be available for selection for the final game of the series to be played in Lahore on October 29.

National selector Saleem Jaffer, has cleared him for national duty and the pacer will in all likelihood be named in the India bound squad.

However, earning a recall to the national side is not the only target facing the 32-year-old pacer.

He is still on probation after hitting teammate Mohammad Asif with a bat last month and has been warned that another breach of the PCB’s Code of Conduct would result in a life ban.

Ashraf is confident that Shoaib and the other senior players will be a positive force for the Pakistan team and will act as a positive force in India.

“I’m sure Shoaib and all the other experienced boys will fulfill their responsibility as senior players and act as a positive force to lift the morale of the national team,” he said.

Confident that Pakistani cricketers will excel both on and off the field in India, the PCB chief said, “Our team will play positive and attacking cricket in India and we will win.”

Young all-rounder Shoaib Malik will be leading Pakistan for the first time in an away Test series.

Pakistan are scheduled to play five match ODI series starting from Guwahati. The next are scheduled to be played at Mohali, Kanpur, Gwalior and Jaipur.

The three Tests will be played in New Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore.

The strange case of Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid must wonder if he didn’t bring it upon himself. He did two things distinctly un-Indian. When he was captain, he didn’t give himself a fixed position at the top of the order. As India’s most consistent batsman he could have had the No. 3 position by right, but he chose to bat at five, sometimes even six – positions where consistent scores are least likely – because he wanted his stroke-makers to get more overs. He didn’t see it as a sacrifice but a decision taken in the best interest of the team and with an eye towards the development of young players.

Two, he gave up the captaincy when he could have had it for another year at least. This was a decision he made more for his own sake. When he was re-appointed captain after the World Cup disaster, Dravid had laid out his expectations and given himself a time allowance. Despite the Test-series victory in England and the closeness of the one-day series, he perhaps didn’t see Indian cricket moving in the direction he would have liked it to head in. There was little progress on the administrative front: the search for a coach had gone nowhere, the post of the administrative manager continued to be a dole, and there was no sign of a media manager being appointed. Dealing with what went on on the field was one thing, but Dravid had no stomach for what went on off it. It could be termed a weakness: captaining India requires a thick skin, a certain indifference to externals, which Dravid lacked and couldn’t acquire.

However, these decisions merely confirmed what we have known about Dravid the cricketer and the man. They were born of earnestness, commitment to Indian cricket, and a clear idea about his priorities. Giving up the captaincy meant giving up certain privileges – and as it transpired, even his place in the side – but once his heart was not in it, he preferred not to hold on to it for the wrong reasons. That’s the essence of the man. Sanjay Manjrekar described him as the most selfless Indian cricketer of the last decade with good reason.

Of all cricketers Dravid could be expected to go before being pushed. It’s the toughest decision for a sportsperson, but it was assumed that Dravid, a player with a keen sense of the history of the game, and an awareness of life outside the bubble of cricket, would know when the time came. And it was also thought that he of all his contemporaries would last longest, for his game was least touched by time.

Yes, his Test form has dipped. It’s rare for him to go two series without making a serious contribution. Between 2000 and 2006, he had a pivotal role in every major Indian Test win, but since his two masterpieces on a difficult pitch in Jamaica last year, he hasn’t been the formidable batsman the world has known him to be. Perhaps the captaincy was beginning to weigh on him.

Dravid would be the first to agree that the selection process needs to be insulated from sentiments and the cult of individual. Instead it should be based on cold logic and should have an eye on the future. As captain he supported some of the tough decisions the previous selection committee took, and it included dropping Sourav Ganguly, his predecessor and an iconic figure in Indian cricket. Dravid, more than anyone else, understands and appreciates the significance of building for the future. But the question that must be asked is: what is the basis for not picking Dravid?

All we have got so far is a series of incoherent, and sometimes contradictory, statements from Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors. In fact, it has been a feature of his reign.

Is this the beginning of a rotation policy? No, there isn’t a need to rotate players; we must pick the best team every time. Is this the end of the road for Dravid, then? No, he is a great player and he will surely make a comeback. Is this, then, a selection purely on current form? Yes, form and fitness are important in this form of the game. Dravid must prove both playing for his state. So, there we have it now. Dravid needs to prove both his fitness and form in a four-day Ranji Trophy match if he is to force his way back into the one-day team.

With the previous selection committee, we knew what the vision was – whether right or wrong was moot. Vengsarkar began his tenure by reversing the push towards youth – “Where is the bench strength?” was an early famous quote – but was last heard gushing about youth in the wake of India’s Twenty20 success. Would the selectors have chosen a young team for the World Twenty20 if Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly hadn’t withdrawn by themselves? The more we see of it, this looks like a committee that is happy to change its course with the tide.

Some of its decisions have been truly baffling, and none more than those to do with Virender Sehwag, who paid for a prolonged bad run in one-day cricket with his place in the team in Tests, a form in which his record has been outstanding. In fact, he wasn’t even dropped from the one-day squad to start with, and then made his comeback via Twenty20 cricket.

The team for the first two one-dayers has five openers, none of them, apart from Tendulkar, capable of being a mid-innings builder. And it’s been clear for a while that Tendulkar doesn’t want to bat down the order. No successful one-day team in the history of cricket has been built around dashers: from Larry Gomes to Michael Bevan to Damien Martyn to Michael Hussey, every successful side has had an accomplished accumulator in the middle. If we look around today, Sri Lanka have Mahela Jayawardene; South Africa, Jacques Kallis; and Pakistan, Younis Khan and Mohammed Yousuf. And England are beginning to realise just how valuable Ian Bell is.

It’s no one’s case that India must plan their one-day future around Dravid. In fact, they must start looking beyond him and Tendulkar and Ganguly. But the transition must be planned with thought and care. When Dravid plays well, he lends balance to the team. When he goes, he must be replaced with someone who is suited to playing his role.

Selection is not about whims and convenience. And it is not always about the immediate. Strong decisions deserve support. But they have to be made with the right and clear intentions.

I’m happy with my form: Pathan

Most of the members of the Indian cricket team are taking a much-needed break from the game.

For pace bowlers like Irfan Pathan, it is time to rejuvenate and recharge his battery before the all-important series against Pakistan next month. He said he is expecting some good cricket from the Indian team in the coming weeks.

It’s been more than a month since India won the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, but the felicitation ceremonies aren’t ending yet.

On Sunday, it was the turn of Gujarat Cricket Association to handover a cheque for Rs 5 lakh to Irfan Pathan for his match-winning effort in the Twenty20 final vs Pakistan.

The 27-year-old now wants to repeat that performance against the archrivals once again when they tour India in November.

“We will try to play good cricket vs Pakistan. Personally, I will try to retain my good form. I am happy with my batting, bowling and fielding. I will try to improve it further,” said Pathan.

Pakistan is one team against which Pathan enjoys bowling and he was the one to take hat-trick vs Younis Khan’s team last year in Karachi.

Things have however changed since then. Pathan is no longer the quickest of the lot amongst the Indian pace battery and doesn’t even get the new ball.

But the Baroda lad isn’t a disappointed man.

“I think my speed is fine. If the wicketkeeper is standing up to the stumps, that doesn’t mean that there is some problem with my speed. I’m still bowling between 130 and 135 km/h/. Speed isn’t needed in my new role. I’m bowling well and getting wickets in between. I may not get that many wickets as I used to get with the new ball,” said the Indian cricketer.

The series against Australia showed how well Pathan is adjusting to his new role.

He was one of the most economical bowlers in the squad and also managed giving crucial breakthroughs.

Things, he says, will only get better in the coming weeks.

“Shoaib will be the danger man” :Pakistan coach

Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson puts India on notice ahead of the one day series starting this week. The former Australian bowler spoke exclusively to TIMES NOW and said Shoaib Akhtar will be the biggest threat to India.

Geoff Lawson took over the reins of the Pakistan team after the tragic loss of Bob Woolmer. But it didn’t take long for this former Australian bowler to prove his worth as he took a young Pakistan team to the finals of the Twenty20 World up.

Lawson now gets ready for his toughest assignment in his career and believes the current series will be about the new superstars of the India and Pakistan side.

Lawson said that it was good to see that both India and Pakistan now had new superstars replacing the older ones.

Lawson was quick to add a few words for Shoaib Akhtar. “At the moment Shoaib is doing all the right things and looks fit. He understands that this is probably his last chance. If he is at his peak then he’ll be a dominant force in this series. My job is to make sure that he is at his peak”.

The excitement is understandable and even Lawson maintains it. Infact the Pakistan coach went on the extent of saying that the series was going to be bigger than any Ashes series.

Lee fit for the fight

FOR three months over winter, Brett Lee was pushing himself through daily pool sessions, weightlifting, physiotherapy, and countless kilometres on a rowing machine and bike.

It was all part of the healing - both mental and physical - after seeing his World Cup dream ripped from under him when a fielding mishap in New Zealand left him with ripped ankle ligaments.

He is back as the face of pace this summer, expected to spearhead the bowling assault in the absence of Glenn McGrath.

Lee says the 90-day torture program has him back better than ever, regularly topping 155km/h with his bowling during the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa and the one-day series in India.

“A lot of fast bowlers go through these setbacks, it’s a test of character as to how you come back,” Lee said last week.

He revealed the anguish he felt when his world came crashing down 14 days before the World Cup started in the Caribbean.

“I was lying on the ground thinking, ‘I hope I’m a chance to play in the World Cup’,” he said.

“Once it was diagnosed that I had three snapped ligaments in my ankle, I knew I was finished.”

The emotional pain gradually gave way to a different type of hurt.

Gruelling training sessions took the focus away from the Caribbean, where South Australian firebrand Shaun Tait took his place and helped win the World Cup with his pace and intimidation.

“The thing for a fast bowler is that it’s all about your body, and you have to be in great shape,” Lee said.

“My research, my training, my study has all been to make sure that I’m the fittest I can possibly be.

“That’s all I’ve done since I hurt my ankle. I got back in the gym, I’ve been running, sprinting and doing it all, plus some.”

Lee’s bid to find his feet suffered a reality check yesterday when he finished with figures of 0-113 for NSW against Queensland in the Pura Cup match at the SCG.

However, he denied being apprehensive or short of pace ahead of the opening Test against Sri Lanka at the Gabba, starting November 8.

“What may happen in the first Test or during the summer, I can’t control. I’ve given myself every opportunity so that I can’t think `I wish I could’ve done this better’,” he said.

“The reality is I’ve been playing almost four years without a single niggle. For a fast bowler running in trying to bowl flat out every single ball, it’s a pretty amazing thing that I could keep going for that long.

“It would’ve been easy for me in the recent Twenty20 matches just past to think I’m just coming back from surgery, I better take it easy.

“But I’m lucky I can blank that out and trust all the work I’ve put in pre-season. I felt so fit that things just went straight back into place.

“I’m probably the fittest I’ve ever been - skin fold and strength-wise - and I am back bowling over 155km/h. Although I’m 31, I only see myself as being 26, 27 on the cricketing front so I’m really excited. It’s definitely extended my career. Freshness-wise and mentally I’m ready to go.”

I will fight for my place back, says Razzaq

Lahore, Pakistan – Disgruntled Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq on Saturday reversed his decision to retire from international cricket, saying he will fight to get his place in the national team back.

“I reconsidered the decision after consultation with my club people, especially my coach Azhar Zaidi, who all advised me to continue playing. So I am back and available for Pakistan,” Razzaq said.

The 26-year-old announced his retirement in August after being excluded from the Pakistan team for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa.

“I took the decision in the heat of the moment and got a lot of calls from fans and supporters who asked me to change the decision,” said Razzaq.
 

Selectors at the time said Razzaq and senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf were being rested – a statement Razzaq said he believed was a pretext for him being dropped from the side.

“I was hurt when they dropped me, and on form and fitness and on my record as an international player, I deserved the benefit of being treated as a senior player,” said Razzaq.

Razzaq missed the 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean earlier in 2007 because of a knee injury.

He has scored 1 146 runs and took 100 wickets in 46 Tests. He made 4 465 runs and took 240 wickets in 231 one-day internationals in a career which began in 1995.

Razzaq’s lacklustre performance in his last 15 one-day internationals – scoring just 173 at 10.73 with 12 wickets at 39 runs each – led to his axing from the team.

Razzaq said he will play in domestic matches to win back his place in the national team.

“I am playing first class cricket for Agricultural Development Bank and do my best to win back my place,” said Razzaq, who also signed for rebel Indian league two months ago.

Razzaq said he was not sure of playing for the ICL.

“I will wait and see. I have signed for them but I will take a decision in the next few days,” said Razzaq about playing in the league unrecognised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)

The BCCI launched its own league to counter the ICL, bankrolled by India’s largest media group.

Razzaq will have to wait until next month to get a place in Pakistan’s Test team for India. Pakistan Friday announced a 16-man one-day squad to play five one-day games against India, the first match starting November 5.

Chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed said Razzaq will have to prove fitness and form.

“Let him play first class cricket and the doors are open for everyone who does well at the domestic level,” said Ahmed.

Watch out for the Indian Premier League! : Lalit Modi

For the past three years Lalit Modi has answered to the Chief Marketing Officer, or CMO, tag at the BCCI. Already, the BCCI’s revenues have grown ten folds and it is ready to roll out a new brand-the Indian Premier League, or IPL. Modi said that as many as 80 entities are keen to own the eight teams and there are still a lot more headroom to increase cricket revenues.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Lalit Modi:

Q: You are the Vice President, in Charge of Marketing, and pretty much the CMO of BCCI, isn’t it?

A: Yes, I would say that.

Q: Can you tell us about the newest brand that you are going to launch, which is the IPL?

A: We are going to invite prospective people, who would like to own teams. At the last count, we had close to about 80 people wanting to buy eight teams.

Q: We heard that it is for about USD 40-60 million per team. Is there a bidding process and how is it working?

A: I think that is cheap. We have laid it down at a minimum price, which will probably be USD 50 million per team. But it is not a number that has been pulled out of the hat, and just put on the table.

The objective is that the team owners must make money to make it flourish and to make it successful. So, by the third year of operation, they must be cash positive or on the worst-case scenario, by the fourth year of operation. So, there will be two-fold revenues for them. One is the intrinsic value going up and second is the actual money coming in.

Q: Are you looking at eight teams?

A: Only eight teams to start with. The way it would work is that a team would be attaching itself to a city. Actual franchise, or the owner, would decide which city he wants to be in.

Q: What about the ticket sells and the merchandise? Will all this be shared between the IPL and the prospective team owner?

A: We have two sorts of revenues. One is called the centralized revenues and the other one is called the local revenues.

The centralized revenue is where we can broadcast revenue. The team naming rights, like we have the Barclays Premier League and ground sponsorship rights, that goes into the central poll. Probably, close to 70-80% of that will flow down to the team owners and 20-30% of that would be kept by the BCCI. We are just finetuning the model.

Then, there is something called localized revenues. The localized revenue is your gate revenue; including the ticket revenue, food and beverage revenue, team sponsorship revenues and merchandising revenues that will be associated with the game, at that particular ground. That revenue stays with the franchise owner, so when you actually look at it, the franchise owner has two sets of income. The third is the PR value and the fourth is the intrinsic value going up, in terms of selling the teams in the future. Its cost, on the other hand, is local cost.

Q: We know you have announced about 30 odd players so far. These players are contracted to the IPL and if I am a team owner, then do I buy these players from you?

A: The objective is twofold. Today, when we are launching in the first phase, there is always going to be a dilemma as to where do we get the players from. So, when we have eight new owners, they will not know where to go and buy the players, whom to contact to get the players.

So, we have taken from the ICC charts the top-50 players and said that we are going to go out and contract them. Right now, I have contracted about 34 players.  Indian icons, which are primarily from a city, will be attached to their team to start with for the first few years. After that, the owners can decide whether they can sell or not sell.

Q: This seems to be a really exciting plan and you have got all other international cricket boards and the ICC to endorse your plans. You have got to admit that it was a reaction to the ICL.

A: I do not agree at all.

Q: I clearly remember you and the BCCI voting at the ICC, against the Twenty 20 format. You were saying that the Twenty 20 format is really not something you want to do right now, because ODIs are doing so well for us?

A: That is not true. We did say that we are planning a domestic tournament. We cannot afford to play a World Cup, unless we have played the game in India ourselves. Unless we have a domestic structure in place, we should not be indulging in something at that time.

When we came into power two years ago, the first statement we said was that we are launching a Twenty 20 League. When we put out our first tender for media rights and ground rights, we clearly marked out in our opening paragraph that BCCI will soon be launching its own Twenty 20 League, which is outside the purview of this contract and so it isn’t something that is going to happen overnight.

It has taken us two years to get where we are as far as Zee or ICL is concerned. They have been in negotiation with us for the last year and a half for this. When we told them it is not going to be possible to be doing it with you, we are not giving it out, they decided to go out and announce their own and it was not a knee-jerk reaction.

In fact, the Indian Cricket League is registered with me as a trademark 1995 company. So, this is the project that I started in 1995.

Q: Did you see it at that point as Twenty 20?

A: No, I did not. It was a 50-50 and identical to the IPL structure. So, it was not a knee-jerk reaction and actually we had a team working on this.

Q: ICL has finally announced its dates for this tournament, November 30 to December 16. You all are talking about April 2008. Is there any sense that you want to advance your timeline?

A: No, we cannot afford to advance our timeline. We have a very tight schedule, ours is a 44-day tournament, with 59 games floated in and it is a lot of movement of people across eight cities. They are playing two games everyday in two different cities and there is the movement of television crews and players.

Q: Are these IPL rights going to be coming up for bidding, like all other BCCI rights? Are they just going to Neo as that seems to be the perception. Neo Sports have got the rights, till 2010, of all international cricket played in India. The neutral territory rights went to them, when that went into dispute, and now is IPL going to them?

A: That is not true. Neo Sports only has rights till March 2010, for all games played in India, on an international basis. They have no rights post that.

They bought at the one-off the international rights of neutral territories, when Zee went out only for the past few series.

Q: Have you given them any Twenty 20 International that is scheduled?

A: We only have one international schedule and nobody is going to come out and buy one match because it requires television crews and production. So, we gave it to them as a one off. Going forward, as far as IPL is concerned, they have no rights at all. In fact, they are a totally new tender.

Q: We have heard reportedly, that they are aggrieved by the fact that they have no rights to IPL and might expect you to relook at the contract that they have already got, like you did post Prasar Bharti’s move?

A: The reason we gave them compensation, as far as the Prasar Bharti was concerned, was because we had an understanding with Prasar Bharti that test matches will not be shown on Doordarshan and on DTH.

That was an undertaking we gave to Neo, at the time of signing the contract, because we could not fulfill that part of the bargain. So, we gave a concession as far as that is concerned. But I can very clearly tell you that Neo will have absolutely zero rights, going forward, as far as IPL is concerned. They will be like any other bidder who will come up in the market place and bid for those rights.

Q: But there is also a sense that perhaps Neo has the right to refuse the rights to match any offers made and rollover of the contract, that they already have with you, for all international cricket in India?

A: No, that is absolutely not true again. They have the first right of negotiation with us for six months prior to the end of the contract.

Q: Is it only for that particular contract and not for anything else?

A: For that particular contract and for most of our contracts, so they can make an offer to us. If  we like the offer, we may accept it. If we do not like the offer, we will go forward with the tender process and offer it to whoever is the highest bidder. They have no matching rights, as far as that is concerned, or rollover rights as you put it.

Q: What about Zee Sports, because there are other reports floating around that Zee Sports is going to be banned from bidding for any of your properties? Is that true?

A: That is absolutely true. Zee Sports or Zee-affiliated companies will not be allowed to participate in any tender process as far as the BCCI is concerned, going forward.

Zee owes the BCCI a large sum of money. They have defaulted on the money. As long as they make good the money they have defaulted on assigned contract, then only we will look at considering that. But till that time, Zee Group will not be allowed to participate in any tender.

Q: It is not because of the ICL?

A: Absolutely, if they make good of our money that they defaulted on, we will happily welcome them to the table.

Q: So are you saying that Neo Sports is not the most favoured broadcaster, Zee Sports is currently bad boy broadcaster?

A: No, there are many more. You have to understand that, as far as IPL is concerned, we not only have ESPN and Star Sports. There is also Sony and you cannot rule it out. There are three-four new boys on the table, who are looking at very aggressively at the space, and want to come in to the space.

Q: What happened to your project-BCCI TV? Do you have the money?

A: We have the money without doubt. If it would have been left to me, I would definitely go out and launch the BCCI TV. It is one project, that I have been pursuing and will continue to pursue with the BCCI, but it will take us some time to get to that.

People are happier in locking in the revenues, than taking risks at this point in time. As we stabilize ourselves and as the BCCI goes forward, people will have more confidence of doing it themselves.

Jason Gillespie joins Indian Premier league of BCCI

Melbourne, Oct 27 : Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie is the latest entrant to join the Indian Premier league (IPL), the professional Twenty20 league venture of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Gillespie is one of the Cricket Australia’s 25 contracted players, and said he was excited by the competition.

“I am at this stage of my career where I am looking forward to new challenges,” Gillespie said.

“I think this competition will be a lot of fun,” The Australian quoted Gillespie, as saying.

Gillespie also said that if he plays for Australia again, it would be in the longer version of the game.

“I have played my last one-day game for Australia, that is for sure, but I believe I can offer something at the Test level if that opportunity arises,” he said.

Gillespie, who has played 71 Tests and taken 259 wickets at an average of 26.13, thinks that the selectors would look at younger bowlers for the summer.

“When I was a young fast bowler, the Australian selectors persevered with me and I think they should do the same for whoever is picked,” he said.

“It takes a while to find your feet at Test level and I was grateful for the opportunities and I hope selectors do the same now.”

The IPL has so far signed 25 foreign players, including Gillespie’s former bowling partner Glenn McGrath.

The Twenty20 competition, consisting of teams under the BCCI, will be held in April 2008. The league has the prize money of three million dollars. (ANI)

Shukla named skipper for Bengal Ranji team

Kolkata (PTI): Laxmi Ratan Shukla was on Saturday handsomely rewarded for rejoining the mainstream of Indian domestic cricket when he was appointed captain of the Bengal Ranji Trophy team for the upcoming season.

Shukla had created a stir by joining the Indian Cricket League during its launch, but took a u-turn a few days later to announce that he was severing ties with the nascent league.

That Shukla would be preferred for the captaincy over Manoj Tiwary was being speculated since reports that he had been promised the top job in return for coming back to the official body.

The Bengal selectors also announced a 14-member squad for the first two Ranji Trophy matches against Hyderabad (November 4-7) at Eden Gardens and Baroda (November 15-18) at Baroda.