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Muttiah Muralitharan has expressed doubts over his participation in the two Twenty20s against India after damaging ligaments in his right bowling hand

Sa'adi Thawfeeq06-Dec-2009Muttiah Muralitharan has expressed doubts over his participation in the two Twenty20s against India after damaging ligaments in his bowling hand.”I suffered the injury when I was playing football. I got hit and two ligaments are damaged in the fingers,” he said. “I was bowling with the injury the whole of yesterday [the third day’s play in Mumbai]. It will take a few days to recover. I am not sure whether I will be fit for the Twenty20s but I should be okay for the one-dayers.”The Sri Lankan team regularly indulge in a game of volley football after a day’s play as a means of keeping the team unity together. According to the manager Brendon Kuruppu, the players decide when to play it. “Especially when you come out on tours of this nature there is nothing the players can do once they get back to their hotel so they play a few games to keep the team unity together,” he said.Muralitharan, the highest wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs, injured the second and third fingers of his right hand during the on-going third Test but showed no discomfort while bowling 51 overs to take 4 for 195 runs during India’s innings.The two Twenty20s are scheduled to take place on December 9 in Nagpur and December 12 in Mohali. The five-match ODI series starts on December 15.

A round-up of the third day’s play of the fifth-round matches of the Ranji Trophy Super League 2009-10

Cricinfo staff03-Dec-2009

Group B

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The follow-on was inevitable on the second day, but Baroda were outdone for a second time as Karnataka marched to six points at the Moti Bagh Stadium. The Karnataka bowlers, led by Vinay Kumar, were once again instrumental in maintaining their supremacy at the top of the table. Baroda’s last pair held out for the first three overs of the morning, as Karanataka imposed the follow-on with a lead of 335. The hosts lost two early wickets in their second essay, before a third-wicket stand of 54 between opener Connor Williams and Jacob Martin propped them up. Robin Uthappa triggered another collapse, leaving Baroda staring down the barrel at 155 for 7. Another brave half-century from Irfan Pathan was the small glimmer of hope, but the hosts succumbed in the 61st over. Vinay Kumar finished with three wickets, while Uthappa, Abhimanyu Mithun and Sreesanth Aravind chipped in with two apiece, ensuring Karnataka became the first team to book a spot in the quarter-finals.
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Pradeep Sangwan’s all-round show kept Delhi’s hopes of an outright win against Saurashtra alive at the Roshanara Club Ground. He starred in a defiant 141-run stand with wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht, who brought up his hundred, and then took two crucial wickets as Delhi looked for a late charge to the quarter-finals. Delhi resumed on 262 for 7, with their chances of taking a lead on a knife-edge. But Sangwan stroked a watchful half-century and gave good support to Bisht, who hit 18 fours during his 169-ball innings. Sangwan and Bisht collaborated again to send back opener Sagar Jogiyani in the third over as Saurashtra’s reply got off on the wrong foot. Sangwan went on to remove the dangerous Cheteshwar Pujara to deal a body blow. Pawan Suyal and Parvinder Awana each picked up two wickets as well, as the rest of the Saurashtra batsmen failed to convert their starts, and were left sweating with a narrow lead.
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The match between Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh at the Pune Club Ground is heading for a great climax, with the visitors up for a tricky chase on the fourth chase. The target was set up by Sangram Dilp Atitkar, who continued the good work for Maharashtra from the previous day, but finishing agonisingly short of a well-deserved century. From their overnight 102 for 2, Maharashtra declared on a challenging 338 for 9, lifted by a string of small yet crucial contributions from the middle order. Legspinner Piyush Chawla yet gain proved pivotal and finished with a five-for. Needing 423 for the win, the Uttar Pradesh openers saw off the five overs remaining in the day. They will look to give the visitors a good start on the final day, if they are to salvage anything form the match, having surrendered first-innings points.

Group A

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With 94 to get, Punjab’s batsmen wasted no time, wrapping up the victory inside 30 overs on the third day. Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Diwan accounted for two batsmen, but Vishwas Bhalla and Taruwar Kohli held fort to rocket them to second place in the points table, ahead of Mumbai, at least for the time being.
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Jay Desai’s watchful half-century might prove pivotal as Gujarat, aiming to keep their quarter-final hopes alive, put on a better second-innings display against Railways in Valsad. Having secured a first-innings lead the previous day, Railways kept Gujarat at bay courtesy Marripuri Suresh’ composed fifty. The legspin duo of Timil Patel and Salil Yadav did well to ensure that only 64 were added to Railways’ overnight score of 327 for 5. The horrors of 91 all out first up were refreshed when Gujarat lost Timil Patel in the third over. But Desai anchored the innings well, combing with Niraj Patel for a second wicket stand of 115. Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel’s approach on the final day will be interesting as Mumbai, who are just above them, are looking dominant in Hyderabad.
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Orissa frittered away a good start to concede a narrow 34-run first-innings lead against Tamil Nadu in Sambalpur. Resuming on a comfortable 173 for 1, still 188 adrift of Tamil Nadu’s first-innings score, Shiv Sunder Das completed his century but his overnight partner Niranjan Behera missed out on three figures by five runs. R Ashwin, who has earned a national call-up for the two Twenty20 internationals against Sri Lanka, broke the 199-run partnership between Das and Behera when he had the latter caught by Chandrasekar Ganapathy. Ganapathy and Aushik Srinivas then bowled incisively, picking up three wickets apiece, to bundle out Orissa in the 71st over of the day. Tamil Nadu proceeded to consolidate their lead as openers Srikkanth Anirudha and Arun Karthik safely negotiated the remaining 17 overs.Click here for Siddarth Ravindran’s report from the Hyderabad-Mumbai match.

Given the cool conditions that blew across Bert Sutcliffe Oval today, and the state of the tournament points table, it wasn’t surprising that India barely went through the motions while Australia were hardly required to stretch themselves before

Lynn McConnell25-Dec-2009Given the cool conditions that blew across Bert Sutcliffe Oval today, and the state of the tournament points table, it wasn’t surprising that India barely went through the motions while Australia were hardly required to stretch themselves before taking an easy nine-wicket win in the World Series of Women’s Cricket.An opening stand of 96 runs, the loss of captain Belinda Clark for 49 and the second One-Day International half century for Lisa Sthalekar who ended on 58 not out off 80 balls, were the highlights of Australia’s response to India’s 134 for seven wickets.Karen Rolton also had time to pick up 21 runs off 21 balls.It was hardly the sort of match Australia would have wanted to celebrate their 150th One-Day International. It did give them their 120th victory. They have had 26 losses, three no results and one tie, a notable occasion against England in the 1982 World Cup tournament played in New Zealand.India’s innings seemed aimed at allowing batsmen time in the middle with the focus on occupation rather than accumulation of runs.The game was dead, and it was a chance for some variations from the usual game plan, but the enjoyment can only have been in completing the 50 overs with wickets still intact because there was little of entertainment value to be had.The 50 took 158 balls and the 100 took 242 balls. By comparison Australia’s 50 took 81 balls and their 100 took 139 balls, a fair indication of the difference in approach to the batting of both sides.The nature of the tournament draw means that India will play England on both Thursday and Friday. Thursday being another dead match while Friday will decide third and fourth places in the event.Few of the batsmen could reflect on any glory from the innings. Anjum Chopra top scored with 25, but it took 84 balls and while all the others got starts it was only some lower-order hitting that saw Sulakshana Naik get second top score with 18.Australia’s bowlers all shared in the benefits to be had from the Indian somnolence and took advantage of the opportunity to boost the economy rate of their bowling.Emma Twining had one for 13 from nine overs, Clea Smith had two for 30 off nine overs, Rolton none for 17 from six, Julie Hayes had none for 22, Alex Blackwell had two for 18 off six overs, Sthalekar one for 19 from seven and Kris Britt none for nine off four.The successful Indian bowler was Amita Sharma who took one for 25.

Ben Hilfenhaus’ long-running knee injury is putting him in serious doubt for the start of Australia’s tour of New Zealand next month

Cricinfo staff17-Jan-2010Ben Hilfenhaus’ long-running knee injury is putting him in serious doubt for the start of Australia’s tour of New Zealand next month. Hilfenhaus, who has not played a major match since he starred against West Indies in Brisbane, saw a specialist in Melbourne last week and was handed some more bad news.”With the injury he’s got, you need a longer time frame to get back to bowling,” Australia’s physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said in the Herald Sun. “We are going to hold him off from bowling for at least another three or four weeks.”Hilfenhaus’ swing and seam would be ideal in New Zealand, but he appears to be out of the limited-overs section of the tour. However, the first of the two Tests starts on March 19, giving him extra time to overcome the tendonitis problem. “He is going to be doubtful for the first part of it [the tour] at least,” Kountouris said.He now faces more rehabilitation to get the muscles stronger in the hope of returning for Tasmania before the end of the Sheffield Shield season. “You either play and they are sore and you play with the pain or you make a commitment to fix them and they take a long time to fix,” Kountouris said.”Because he’s had the problem for quite a period of time and it’s just got sorer and sorer, a by-product of that is your muscles become weak as well. When you have pain your muscles switch off and it is a matter of building up your strength again. One leg is noticeably smaller than the other if you look at him because he’s had pain for three or four months and playing with it, it tends to shrink a little bit.”

After much delay, four new members have been appointed to the PCB’s governing board, all of them elected representatives of regional cricket associations

Cricinfo staff18-Feb-2010After much delay, four new members have been appointed to the PCB’s governing board, all of them elected representatives of regional cricket associations. They will remain on the board for two years.The names of the four were recommended by Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, to President Asif Ali Zardari, the patron of the board. Major (retd) Naeem Akhtar Gillani, president of the Rawalpindi regional cricket association, replaced Shakil Sheikh, the influential president of the Islamabad cricket association.Tariq Baloch, president of the Quetta regional cricket association, has been appointed in place of Mian Mohammad Munir who is president of the Multan association. Chaudry Mohammad Anwar, president of the Faisalabad cricket association, replaces Amir Hayat Rokhri, the heads of the Lahore cricket association and Mir Haider Ali Talpur, the Hyderabad cricket association president, has replaced Mohammad Ali Shah, president of the Karachi cricket association.Shah and Shaikh are significant changes. The pair were staunch supporters of Butt, but have recently become his fiercest critics. The termination of both had been announced by the board sometime back, but they both appeared on TV claiming that until new members were officially appointed they remained members of the governing board.As expected Ehsan Mani, the former ICC president, has not been appointed as a member. Reports were circulating locally that Mani’s name had been recommended as well, but Mani had earlier told Cricinfo that he hadn’t been contacted and would not take up the position if offered in any case.There are currently seven members on the board, including a representative for the departments and associations of the domestic game. Ultimately, there will be between 13-15 members, including a number of technocrats as well as ex-players.

The Sheffield Shield final could be cut from Australia’s domestic season in two years as Cricket Australia continues to search for ways to expand the Twenty20 Big Bash

Cricinfo staff08-Mar-2010The Sheffield Shield final could be cut from Australia’s domestic season in two years as Cricket Australia continues to search for ways to expand the Twenty20 Big Bash. Squeezing a longer Twenty20 tournament in would make it difficult to keep same amount of games in the Sheffield Shield and FR Cup.One option is to scrap the first-class final and instead award the trophy to the state that finishes on top of the table after the ten regular rounds. The five-day decider was only introduced in 1982-83 and the enormous advantage of hosting – the home team needs only to draw to win the title – has caused some dull finals dominated by ridiculously high scores.”There’s obviously been discussion around the traps,” Tony Dodemaide, Cricket Victoria’s chief executive, told the . “To expand the T20, the alternatives are to extend the season or to find room, and trimming either the Shield or one-day cricket are the only alternatives. The other thing to take into account with the Shield final is that six venues have to make provision for staging it, but five of them wind up idle in the end.”Cricket Australia wants to fit in more Big Bash matches from 2011-12, without impinging on the international calendar or, if possible, the Sheffield Shield. One suggestion was to start the four-day competition in northern Australia early in the season, when southern venues could be too wet, although it wasn’t an idea that pleased Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has issued a statement regarding Raqibul Hasan’s emotional decision to retire from international cricket

Cricinfo staff11-Mar-2010The Bangladesh Cricket Board has issued a statement regarding Raqibul Hasan’s emotional decision to retire from international cricket on the eve of the first Test against England, explaining that “the abrupt nature of this announcement has come as a shock to everyone concerned as this was totally unexpected.”It is thought that the root of Raqibul’s anger lies in an apparent disagreement between the board and the selectors over his recall for the England Test series, and in his omission from Bangladesh’s provisional squad for the World Twenty20. Cricinfo understands that the recommendation from above had been that Raqibul should be dropped for the Tests along with Mohammad Ashraful, whose form has deserted him in recent months.Bangladesh’s coach, Jamie Siddons, criticised the decision to leave Raqibul out of the Twenty20 squad, but highlighted his hopes for reconciliation between the board and the young batsman. “I don’t know who he was trying to hurt or what point he was trying to prove, but I hope the BCB welcomes him back because he’s a kid who’s a bit confused,” he said.”He didn’t like being dropped in the way he was dropped, then missing out on the 30 probables for the World Cup Twenty20 squad, which was probably bad selection, and he’s really disappointed,” Siddons added. “He thought he’d proved his point that he was good enough to be in that 30, which I think he is and then he walked away.”In a response to suggestions that selection disagreements were to blame, the BCB countered: “We take this opportunity to reiterate once again that selection of Test, ODI and Twenty20 Teams is based purely on performance and merit and is done at the discretion of the National Selection Committee which has its own criteria for picking players. Therefore, there is no scope for emotion in this regard.”The Board understands that this was a unilateral decision on part of the player but also feels that it was rather premature,” the statement continued. “We certainly do not wish to see a young talented cricketer like Raqibul leaving the game so early and hope that he will reconsider his position. Raqibul is an important member of the Bangladesh national team and it is our sincere expectation that he will return to mainstream cricket at the earliest.”

Players want the ECB to reduce one-day as well as four-day cricket in the new-look structure for 2011 amid concern that Twenty20 is about to pass the point of overkill this summer

Cricinfo staff07-Apr-2010County players have asked the ECB to clarify a solution to the overcrowded domestic schedule, calling for a reduction in both one-day and four-day cricket for when the game is restructured in 2011.Angus Porter, the chief executive of the PCA, said that indecision over how the game will be arranged next summer has left players unsure of what they are competing for this season. “Announcing something like, say, a three-division Championship when this season is materially completed would be unacceptable,” Porter told . “If the players are saying anything to us, it is get the decisions made early.”The ECB are considering a number of options to reduce the number of Championship matches, with chief executive David Collier denying that it is already tied to adopting a conference system. Porter, echoing the sentiments of England captain Andrew Strauss, said that whatever the new format, the focus has to be a reduction on fixtures in both four-day and limited-overs cricket.”If we are looking at the schedule, then we should look at all of it,” he said. “I do not think the players would necessarily go with the Championship as the only place to reduce. They also want a closer look at 40-over cricket and I think they are nervous that we might be overdoing Twenty20. They are aware of the commercial angle and love playing it, but they are just worried.”While the ECB believes that expanding Twenty20 – and there will be 151 matches in total from June 1 to August 18 this year – will generate the revenue to persuade counties to reduce the number of Championship games, the PCA is worried that overexposure could threaten crowd numbers.”Some counties have three Twenty20 games in five days, commonly there are two in three days. The whole business assumes grounds will be sold out, and we are genuinely concerned whether that is true,” said Porter.The other issue the PCA were keen to discuss was the prospects about the Twenty20 Champions League. The lucrative tournament, with a prize pool of almost £4 million, clashes with the final weeks of the English domestic season and Porter suggests counties who qualify for the Champions League may field weaker sides for the climax to the English season.”From informal talks I have had the attitude is split, from one or two county chief executives saying they are going to the Champions League if they qualify no matter what, to others who say that would be appalling and that we must respect our domestic competitions.”

Monty Panesar, the Sussex and England spinner, has received a penalty under the ECB’s discipline code

Cricinfo staff10-May-2010Monty Panesar, the Sussex and England spinner, has received a penalty under the ECB’s discipline code after showing dissent at an umpire’s decision during Sussex’s County Championship game against Middlesex last week.Panesar picked up two wickets in the game, which Sussex lost, and lost his rhythm as Dawid Malan powered Middlesex to victory with an unbeaten century in the second innings.Panesar was reported by Umpires Peter Willey and Steve Gale for a Level One breach of the code, and has received a reprimand. The penalty will remain on his record for a period of two years, and any further breach during that period will result in an automatic imposition of three penalty points.

Australia could one day have separate Twenty20 and Test teams playing simultaneously, according to the chief executive of Cricket Australia James Sutherland

Cricinfo staff02-Jun-2010Australia could one day have separate Twenty20 and Test teams playing simultaneously, according to the chief executive of Cricket Australia James Sutherland. The gap between the formats has grown and only five of the 11 who lost the World Twenty20 final to England are regulars in Australia’s Test outfit.Sutherland believes the separation will continue to grow, with more and more Twenty20 specialists likely to appear. The reported that Sutherland outlined the vision in his keynote speech at a Cricket Australia conference in Queensland on Tuesday.”While hosting Tests here, Australia could have its Twenty20 team touring somewhere else,” Sutherland said. “It is difficult not to see a generation of players coming through with an eye to becoming Twenty20 specialists. As more Twenty20 cricket is played there are clearly opportunities for players to choose to be specialists.”Taking it through to its natural extension, if you have a specialist team then why can’t you have a specialist Twenty20 team and a specialist Test team [playing] at the same time? In rugby union, for example, the ARU has a sevens team and a Wallabies team.”However, while such an idea might suit older players who retire from first-class cricket to pursue a Twenty20 career, such as Dirk Nannes, it could make for some tough choices for younger men. Steven Smith, for example, has made his name as a Twenty20 player but his Test hopes could be scuppered if such a concept was in place.