Australia considering day-night test matches

SYDNEY  - Australia are considering introducing day-night test matches to try and halt the declining interest in the game.

Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland said officials wanted to cash in on the popularity of one-day and Twenty20 cricket by staging tests at night.

Sutherland said the plan was still in its infancy but he hoped to trial the idea within the next three years.

“We are tossing it around and working out the fundamentals,” Sutherland told The Australian newspaper on Thursday.

“In a realistic sense, we don’t see any reason why we can’t be at least trialling some day-night test cricket matches, not necessarily all of them, before the end of the decade.

“It could happen sooner, I don’t know. We need to explore that and go through a consultative process.”

Although test matches have been played in daylight for the past 130 years, one-day games have been played under floodlights since the late 1970s.

While ticket sales for test matches have been steadily dwindling around the world, one-day and Twenty20 still enjoy enormous support.

Tuesday’s Twenty20 match between Australia and New Zealand in Perth was sold out and a bigger hit with television audiences.

Sutherland said it was inevitable that test cricket needed to change with the times but stopped short of calling for an end to daytime tests.

“Cricket is sport but it’s also entertainment and as administrators our responsibility is to meet customers’ needs,” he said.

“I am saying that in order to meet consumer demands and to satisfy, if not fuel, consumer interests in the game it would appear there are many good reasons why we should be playing test cricket at night.”

One of the biggest obstacles could be finding a ball that can be seen at night after being used all day. Red balls are used for test matches but can’t be seen against a darkened sky.

White balls are currently used for one-day matches but don’t retain their colour long, making it hard for the batsmen to see them when the light starts to fade.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said he was opposed to playing tests at night.

“I’m a bit of a traditionalist,” he told The Australian.

“I wouldn’t like to be changing the way test cricket is looked at and played too much.

“We had day-night (first-class) games a while ago, although I didn’t play in them.

“They played a lot in Perth, they played a lot in Brisbane, and by all accounts they were a nightmare for all the batsmen.”

Ganguly relishing regained youth

Eleven years after he made his Test debut, Sourav Ganguly seems to be drinking from a secret fount of youth.

What else can account for two of his most amazing innings ever, at the ripe age of 35? What else can account for the fact that, two years after being condemned as a man whose game was up, Ganguly piled up over 1,000 runs in a single year?

The man himself saw nothing remarkable in this — he said nothing has changed in his game, that it’s all in the mind. Ganguly’s 330 runs from this game, including that inspirational 239 in the first innings, gave him the Man of the Match award; his total of 534 from five innings, apart from his four wickets, also made him the Man of the Series.

Numbers be damned, it was his flamboyance that sent down a frisson of thrill down the watchers’ spine — he seemed to be at the height of his powers yet again, his strokes through the off-side seemed to go back in time.

He seemed to have found the fearlessness of his youth, without its brashness. In the first innings, he shepherded Yuvraj Singh and then stepped back to admire the fireworks. In the second, after two wickets fell early, he again hit back, with delicate touches and brutal swipes. It was a cracking surface, yet Ganguly made it all look so easy.

So, what has changed so much in him that has changed his game so much, taken it to its youthful heights?

“I haven’t made any major adjustments in technique,” Ganguly later said. “Most of the adjustments are in the mind.”

Ganguly’s two tons in two matches was the first time he did this after his debut. He came close to making it three in three. “I’m slightly disappointed that I could not the hundred in the second innings, but it was good to make runs on this pitch when it was needed,” he said.

Runs would be needed in Australia too — he was the skipper and the inspiration when India drew the series there four years ago. Now’s the time for an encore.

‘We were competitive in all three Tests’ – Malik

After 20 days of cricket including five ODIs and three Tests, several injuries and rumours about captaincy, Pakistan leave India with little to show in terms of hard results. They won two ODIs, one of which was a dead rubber, and were playing catch-up in each of the three Tests. Shoaib Malik, their captain who missed the last two Tests because of injury, thought otherwise however, suggesting their performance wasn’t as bleak as the 3-2 and 1-0 scoreline in the ODI and Test series suggested.

“We were competitive in all the three Tests,” he said after the final day’s play. “If you look at it, we played badly in the morning session on the third day of the Delhi Test, and that cost us the series. There were a lot of positives to emerge. India scored more than 600 runs not once but twice in a row and we replied with 500.”

A significant reason behind Pakistan’s competitiveness in the Tests was the form of Misbah-ul-Haq. He scored 464 runs in six innings and his centuries in Kolkata and Bangalore played crucial roles in Pakistan drawing the last two Tests. Malik had high praise for the batsman who stepped in to fill the gap left by Inzamam-ul-Haq.

“He was tremendous throughout the series,” said Malik. “He and [Kamran] Akmal played a big role in us saving the Kolkata Test. Here also, the same pair put on a very good and important stand, and that augurs well for us.”

Akmal, after a poor one-day series, struck form in the Tests. His century in Kolkata complemented Misbah’s and he scored an aggressive fifty in Bangalore to help Pakistan past the follow-on mark. However, his keeping in the ODIs was poor and didn’t get much better in the Tests.

But Pakistan’s biggest disappointment was perhaps the form of Danish Kaneria. He picked up 19 wickets in three Tests on his last visit to India and played a vital role in the series-levelling win in Bangalore. This time he hardly troubled the batsmen and, although he took 12 wickets, they cost him 52 apiece. Malik defended Kaneria saying that “like a batsman has a bad patch, a bowler too sometimes can go through it.”

The other main concern would be over the fitness of key players, an issue that hampered them through the Test series. Malik acknowledged that “problems with physical fitness” significantly affected their competitiveness and stressed that it was an area they needed to improve upon.

Mohammad Asif was ruled out of the series before it even began and their bowling attack was further weakened by Umar Gul’s back injury and the illnesses that affected Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami before the second Test in Kolkata. Shoaib’s back injury during the Bangalore Test left them with a three-man bowling attack in the first innings, allowing India to pile up an impregnable first-innings total.

Pakistan now have a long gap before their next Test series in March. It provides an ideal window to get their first-choice fast bowlers match-fit and as it is Australia who are visiting, how Pakistan fare in the series could well hinge on the fast bowlers.

Ditch Gilchrist to promote Clarke, Warne tells selectors

SYDNEY  - Michael Clarke should be groomed to take over from Ricky Ponting as Australia’s next cricket captain, according to retired spinner Shane Warne.

Warne said the Australian selectors should ditch Adam Gilchrist as vice-captain and give the job to Clarke to help prepare him to eventually take over from Ponting.

“To me the next logical step is to groom him. I believe the best way to do this would be to elevate him to the vice-captaincy in all forms of the game,” Warne wrote in his weekly column for Sydney’s Daily Telegraph on Thursday.

“Gilly has done a wonderful job but won’t be around for too much longer in all forms of the game. I reckon he will hang the gloves up and decide to play only one form, probably test matches.

“That would mean Pup (Clarke) would learn about the other issues involved away from the field and attend meetings with Cricket Australia, have input with Ricky about selection – to be there in support if Ricky wants to bounce some ideas around.”

Clarke captained Australia for the first time in Tuesday’s Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Perth and Warne said he was highly impressed by what he saw.

“When you win the toss, hit the first ball you face for four and win the match in your first game as national skipper, you would have to think it’s not a bad start,” Warne said.

“He has all the attributes and the image, flair, confidence in his own ability, respect for the game and respect from his teammates which has been earned. He knows himself, understands his own game and is hungry for success.

“There is a long way to go until Ricky, who is the best batsman in the world right now, gives it away. And there is a lot that can happen between now and then.

“But Mr Clarke is settled in his life at the moment. Off the field with Lara, and on the field, he’s in a good space. Feeling fresh, prepared and happy, is what performing at top level sport-business is all about.”

Sehwag recalled, call-up for Pankaj Singh

The Indian selectors have sprung a major surprise by recalling Virender Sehwag to the Indian team for the four-Test series against Australia. Although he was not in the list of 24 probables Sehwag has got a recall after Gautam Gambhir was advised three weeks rest with a sore shoulder.

There was also place in the 16-man squad for Pankaj Singh, the young Rajasthan fast bowler. Munaf Patel, who was thought to be a front-runner for a spot has been advised to play more domestic cricket before he will be considered for selection in the future.

All season Pankaj has impressed with his performances for Rajasthan. Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, has spoken highly of Pankaj on more than one occasion. A string of good bowling for Rajasthan Under-19 pitchforked Pankaj into the the first-class team in 2003. But it was in late 2006 that he really showed signs of maturing by leading the Rajasthan attack and taking them to the plate league final. In 2007 he broke into the India A team and was successful in the tour of Kenya and Zimbabwe and then played in the home series against South Africa A.

Sehwag makes his return to the Test team after being ignored after India’s tour to South Africa in 2006-07. His last Test was in Cape Town, and since then he has played only ODIs and Twenty20 internationals. Sehwag hasn’t been in great touch in the Ranji Trophy, with 66 runs in five innings for Delhi.

Dinesh Karthik held onto his place in the squad, after scoring a half-century on the final day of the drawn third Test against Pakistan. Also included in the squad are Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan, who were included in India’s squad for the final Test against Pakistan after a spate of injuries to fast bowlers.

Ishant, who took five wickets in Pakistan’s first innings, said he was happy on being selected though he hadn’t been mulling over it during the Test in Bangalore. “I didn’t think my performance in Bangalore would have played such a part in my selection,” Ishant told Cricinfo. “My aim was to bowl properly and I didn’t stress myself by thinking ”will I be picked or not. The Australian wickets will surely be an advantage to my style of bowling, with the bounce and pace, and my job now will be to hit the right areas.”

From the current squad there was no place for Murali Kartik, the left-arm spinner, but this was expected given the fact that India were only going to take two spinners on a tour of Australia.

With Sreesanth unfit the pace attack is led by Zaheer Khan and backed up by RP Singh, Ishant, Pathan and Pankaj.

India’s Test squad for Australia
Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble (capt), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Pankaj Singh.

PCB unaware of Yousuf’s petition against ICL

Karachi : The PCB on Wednesday said it was not aware of Mohammad Yousuf taking the India Cricket League to the court but reiterated support to the batsman on the issue.

Some media reports had claimed that Yousuf has filed a suit in a Lahore civil court in which he has asked for a hefty 21.5 crore rupees as compensation for damaging his reputation and causing him mental anguish.

The reports further claimed that he made the former captain Moin Khan, who is working as an agent for the ICL, a party in the case.

“Yes we are 100 percent behind Yousuf in any move by the ICL to drag him to court or claim damages from him for not playing for them. But until now we do not have any knowledge of Yousuf having filed any petition in Lahore,” Shafqat Naghmi, a Board official said.

“I think given the way we have been involved in this ICL issue if Yousuf decided to file any petition he would talk to us about it,” Naghmi said.

Yousuf has claimed, as per reports, that he had returned the first instalment of the contract money and for the cancellation of his ICL contract.

The ICL has summoned Yousuf for an arbitration hearing in India on December 16 as they claim that he violated his contractual obligations by not playing for them and instead signing another contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board.

The PCB has been backing Yousuf in his stand-off with the ICL.

Naghmi expressed surprise over the media reports.

“I do not know how it can happen because he has been in India since last month. But yes we will support him if he needs our help,” he said.

However, Naghmi admitted that the Board had sought legal advice in India for Yousuf when the ICL first sent him a legal notice.

Naghmi maintained that PCB’s policy on players, who have opted to play for the ICL remains unchanged.

“The players who have now appeared in ICL will not be considered for national selection until there is a change in policy.”

Pakistan has six players appearing in the ongoing ICL matches including former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Sanath Jayasuriya to join Warwickshire

Warwickshire are close to completing the signing of Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya as an overseas player for the duration of next season’s Twenty20 Cup.

• The four host countries of the 2011 World Cup will ask the International Cricket Council if they can hold the tournament over a shorter period of time than the 2003 and 2007 events.

Representatives from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh want to hold the quarter-finals after the preliminary round of matches between two groups of seven.

• Former Derbyshire captain Graeme Welch is return to county cricket next season as Essex’s new bowling coach.

• Leicestershire have appointed former Warwickshire opening batsman David Smith as their new chief executive.

Bangalore police arrest cricket fan on suspicion

Bangalore: The anti-terror cell of Bangalore police on Tuesday arrested a Pakistani cricket fan during ongoing India Pakistan Test.

 

According to police, Shaik Anwar Buksh does not have valid travel documents and had sneaked into the city for the cricket match.

 

The state police are in touch with Central Intelligence Agencies over the probe into the case.

 

“We have been keeping a general alert but whenever there is suspicious behavior, we follow it with extra caution. For instance, one Shaik Anwar bukash has entered India illegally. We have already collected intelligence information about him and are tracking him,” said Inspector General, STF Karnataka police, M Nagaraj.

 

Incidentally, the city police have also been investigating a letter addressed by one Muhammed Fahad, a militant jailed in Mysore, to the Pakistan cricket team.

 

Police was worried the letter may contain a coded message for someone.

 

 

 

 

 

Pakistan to show more faith in youngsters after disappointing India tour

KARACHI: More than half of the Pakistan team that will take on Zimbabwe in a five-match one-day series at home next month will consist of rookie players.

‘The News’ has learnt that the decision to induct fresh legs in the Pakistan squad on an ‘experimental basis’ is a part of a planned drive by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which wants the team to recover quickly from a disappointing tour of India.

And they believe the best way to go about it is by getting rid of some of the relatively experienced players, who have been giving a below-par performance in recent outings. According to a top PCB official, the Board chairman Nasim Ashraf has given clear instructions to the national selection committee to start looking for junior players good enough to graduate into the big league.

The official, who requested anonymity, also revealed that the PCB top brass has made up its mind to carry out a thorough post-mortem of the team’s performance in India where it lost the one-day series 2-3 and also failed to give the hosts any worthwhile fight in the three-match Test series, which it currently trails 0-1.

“The PCB chief will soon be calling an emergency meeting to discuss the reasons why Pakistan were unable to live up the expectations in India,” said the official. “The meeting will be attended by some of the Board’s top officials, the national team management and the coaches working for the National Cricket Academy (NCA),” the official added.

He said that the meeting is also aimed at finding a solution for the current shortage of reliable bench players. “Everybody saw Pakistan’s performance in India and it was hardly impressive, apart from a few success stories,” said the official.

The PCB, which was expecting Pakistan to show more improvement after a forceful showing at the inaugural World Twenty20 championship in South Africa this September, is quite concerned over the fact that their team flopped against South Africa at home, where it lost both the one-day and Test series, and then against India in the away tour.

Top Board officials are particularly unhappy with the performance of some of the experienced players and now want youngsters to be given a bigger role. They want the national selectors and the team officials to work together and find more reliable openers and are also calling for a substitute wicket-keeper as regular stumper Kamran Akmal continues to spill catches.

“We are all convinced that there is a need to bring in more youngsters in the side. And we also believe that the series against Zimbabwe will be the perfect event to give ample opportunity to newcomers,” the official explained.

PCB officials are pleased with the impressive performances from players like middle-order batsman Misbah-ul-Haq, medium pacer Sohail Tanvir and all-rounder Fawad Alam in India and are of the view that the team needs more new blood in its preparations for next year’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan and more importantly the 2011 World Cup to be held in the sub-continent.