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Days of fervent speculation came to an end today with the Indian CricketLeague announcing its roster of players, which included Inzamam-ul-Haqand Mohammad Yousuf and an assortment of Indians – former internationals, domestic veterans and greenhorns. However, the organisers failed to shedany light on the details of the tournament.Prominent in the list of 50 released at the press conference were DineshMongia, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Deep Dasgupta, JP Yadav, Laxmi RatanShukla and T Kumaran, all former Indian cricketers. And apart fromInzamam and Yousuf, the ICL announced the names of Abdul Razzaq andImran Farhat from Pakistan, who have signed on with Lance Klusenerand Nicky Boje of South Africa.Last month the ICL had announced the signing of Brian Lara, the former West Indies captain, and he remains the biggest name to join till date.However, the organisers could not yet reveal where or when the proposed40-day Twenty20 tournament would take place. It is believed that thetournament will be held in October. However, at the same time Australiawill be in India to play a series of seven ODIs. Soon after that Pakistantour India, another marquee series, while India tour Australia straightafter. The organisers do not have a window in which to stage thistournament, without it clashing with the Indian team’s itinerary, andperhaps that explained why they could not come up with dates.Kapil Dev, the chairman of the executive board of the ICL, pointed to theassembled group of cricketers, calling them “the cream of talent” in thecountry, as one-by-one, the 44 cricketers from domestic cricket walked upand took their places on a podium alongside the dais where officials ofthe ICL were seated.The most severely hit association was Hyderabad with eight of its playersjoining the ICL. Bengal and Punjab have also had their Ranji teams eroded,with the likes of Deep Dasgupta, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Subhomoy Das,Subhojit Paul and Shibsagar Singh from Bengal, and Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Ishan Malhotra from Punjab. Railways and Uttar Pradesh were two other teams also badly hit.The ICL organisers were also tightlipped about the kind of money peoplewere being offered. They refused to either confirm or deny the kind ofnumbers doing the rounds in the media. It is speculated that players fromIndian domestic cricket – not international stars like Inzamam and Yousuf- were being paid in the region of Rs 30 lakh ($72,600) a year.When it was put to Kapil that the contract period of ICL was three years,and that it was likely that players who signed on with ICL would losetheir regular jobs – most players are employed to represent theircompanies in leagues and tournaments conducted under the auspices of theBCCI and its affiliates, and will be unable to do so if a ban were imposed- he responded, “Can you tell me what will happen to your job after twoyears?” Kapil shot back. “As long as they keep on playing well, they willdo well. These are professional people who have to make their own lives.”Kapil was seated alongside the other officials of the ICL – Himanshu Mody,the project head of ICL, Sandeep Patil, Kiran More, EAS Prasanna, BharatReddy, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Madan Lal, Rajesh Chauhan and Pranab Roy.Kapil was at his emotional best, exhorting his players to do well, andcongratulating them on showing the bravery they had in joining the ICL.”I’d like to take everyone to where we started some months ago. At that time peopleasked, ‘Where will you get cricketers from?’ This is the cream of thecountry,” he said, pointing to the group of 44 Indian cricketers. “Thecourage these people have showed, even I didn’t have at that age. We needpeople like this who want to make their own decisions. They take pride toplay for their country, not being pushed by someone or threatened bysomeone. What we need is to entertain the people in this country. I willback you till the last day I live.”In their turn the players who had joined the ICL spoke of their reasonsfor doing so. “I thought of all the pros and cons. Playing domesticcricket does not give me a chance to play against international stars,”said Abhishek Jhunjhunwala. “This gives me very good security.”Mongia, who is believed to be one of the big-ticket signings, said,”My clear thought is, as a cricketer I want to play cricket. I play clubcricket in Chandigarh, in Madras I play in corporate tournaments, I playRanji Trophy for Punjab, and league cricket in England. Here again I get achance to play with youngsters who are good, and foreign players.”Interestingly, Mody, the head of the initiative, claimed he knew nothing ofthe circumstances surrounding Boje, after announcing his signing.Boje had withdrawn from South Africa’s last tour of India, with the Delhipolice wanting to question him regarding matchfixing allegationssurrounding an existing case in the Hansie Cronje affair from years ago.”I suppose Boje has taken all that into consideration when signing thecontract,” he said. “He has signed with us and that’s all I know. I’m notaware of these allegations of betting or whatever it is you’re speakingof.”International players
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Imran Farhat, LanceKlusener, Nicky BojeIndian players
Hyderabad : Ambati Rayudu, Alfred Absolem, Inder Shekar Reddy, Ibrahim Khaleel, Shashank Nag, D Vinay Kumar, Kaushik Reddy, Anirudh SinghBengal: Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Deep Dasgupta, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shibsagar Singh, Subhomoy Das, Subhojit Paul, Syed Akhlakh Ahmed.Punjab: Dinesh Mongia, Ishan Malhotra, Reetinder Sodhi, Manish Sharma, Sarabjit Singh, Rajesh Sharma, Sumit KaliaTamil Nadu: V Devendran, J Hariesh, R Sathish, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, Thirunavukarasu Kumaran, Hemanth Kumar, G VigneshUttar Pradesh: Shalabh Srivastava, Ali Murtaza, Avinash YadavMaharashtra: Dheeraj Jadhav, Ranjit Khirid, Sridharan SriramMadhya Pradesh: Syed Abbas Ali Khan, Sachin Dholpure, Mohnish Mishra,T SurendraRailways: Jai Prakash Yadav, Shreyas KhanolkarBaroda: Kiran PowarAndhra: Syed SahabuddinMumbai: Robin MorrisServices: Yashpal SinghNon first-class players: Abhishek T (Chattisgarh), Raviraj Patil and Puskaraj Mohan Joshi (both Maharashtra)

The committee appointed by the West Indies Cricket Board to review the tenure of Bennett King, the West Indies coach, and his staff has been unable to determine whether the Board are getting value for money. However, they have recommended that King and his men stay put.The WICB issued a media release on the report submitted on February 15 by the committee headed by Jackie Hendriks and including the WICB directors Deryck Murray and Enoch Lewis were the other members.The evaluation of King, David Moore, the assistant coach, Stephen Partridge, the physiotherapist, and Bryce Cavanaugh, the trainer, had been prompted by a request by Chetram Singh, the Guyana Cricket Board president and WICB director, for the Board to determine whether King and his colleagues were worth the collective sum of US$1m they are reportedly receiving. Since his tenure began, King, who has been given full responsibility for the team, has presided over just one Test victory in 12 matches, the latest defeat being Monday’s 27-run loss against New Zealand in Auckland.However, in the release, the WICB said: “The Hendriks Committee noted that there was not sufficient evidence to work with in determining whether the investment in the coaching staff had paid dividends and suggested that the coaching staff be given more opportunity before a further evaluation is made.”Specifically, the Hendriks committee had been asked to:1. Review the conditions of employment which relate to the imported coaching staff and to evaluate the results which have been achieved to date and2. To advise whether, in the view of the committee, the results achieved have justified the investment.However, while failing to come to a firm conclusion on the success of King and his men, the committee commended “the obvious commitment of the coaching staff toward moving West Indies cricket forward”. The committee noted further that ” King and his support team appear to be keen and resolute in their determination to ensure that the West Indies team shows a marked improvement in both one-day and Test matches, and they realise that their future employment with the WICB depends very largely on an improvement of the team’s performances over the next 18 months.” It also concluded that strides had been made in fitness and technical areas.The committee also said King was “in complete charge of the West Indies team in accordance with his mandate and the results achieved by the team must be taken as an indication of the effectiveness of his tenure to date”. “However, off-the-field issues over which the head coach had no control have led to a negative view of his performance, including the lack of funds available for him to carry out certain of his plans and, too, the very unsettling industrial impasse that has existed before and during recent home and away series. The delay in implementing retainer contracts for players was also a cause for great concern by the head coach in working on achieving the goals and objectives set by the coaching staff.”The committee also found there was a need for several changes to be made in the running of regional cricket. These changes included the structure of West Indies first-class cricket, which they said needed to undergo considerable change so as to maximise its effectiveness; the need to adopt and implement the Regional Cricket Development Plan; the reintroduction of a central cricket academy with a vastly improved structure, and the establishment of satellite academies within the territories which would greatly enhance the effectiveness of the central academy; the need for a process and a system to be put in place to raise the standards throughout the region; and the need to appoint a West Indian understudy to the head coach to provide for succession planning.In addition, the committee urged that a consistent and uniform coaching policy throughout the region be established and that leadership training continued to be pursued.

Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, has said that he will step down when his contract expires in June 2008.”That will conclude seven years and I will not stay on longer than that,” Speed said from the ICC’s headquarters in Dubai.He denied that the stinging criticism both he and the ICC had received during the World Cup had influenced his decision, insisting that he had made up his mind before then.”It’s not a secret, there’s nothing earth-shattering,” an ICC spokesman told Cricinfo. “He’s just decided now’s a good time. He will be 60 next September and he was is quite content that the future is on a good footing. He will have left the game on a sound footing in terms of finances, thanks to agreements including the recent deal with ESPN-Star.”Speed succeeded David Richards, another Australian, in 2001 and he has overseen a period when income into the game has reached unprecedented levels. But with that has come a marked increase in the power of individual boards, and Speed has often seemed increasingly at odds with the policies the ICC has been forced to follow.The ICC will discuss the process of recruitment in October. It expects David Morgan, who is on the human resources and remuneration committee, to play a role there, particularly as he will be the incumbent president.

Ricky Ponting said that he was more proud than relieved after Australiahad kept their nerve to emerge triumphant in yet another crunch game, andhe was effusive in his praise for the bowlers who delivered such tellingspells to script an 18-run victory.Though he was defending just 213, Ponting said that India’s early collapsehad given his team an edge that they never quite relinquished. “I thoughtwe were actually in the game for a fair bit of it to tell the truth,” hesaid, when asked if there had been a particular moment when he scentedvictory. “Though we hadn’t gotten the runs on the board, we got fourwickets quite early and if you looked at their team, you could realisethey had a fairly long tail with Ajit [Agarkar] batting where he was, andHarbhajan [Singh] after him.”We just needed another couple during the middle of the innings. I stillhad Brett [Lee] and Glenn [McGrath] and Stuey Clark up my sleeve, so I wasalways going to bring them back to hopefully finish things off. It was agood tight tussle right to the end, and Australia generally wins most ofthose contests.”The cockiness was tempered by the knowledge that it had been a close-runthing, with the pre-planned omissions of Michael Clarke and Shane Watsonappearing to be glaring ones halfway through the day. “It’s always nice tohave lots of options when you have a small total on the board but wedidn’t have that tonight. Brett and the rest of the guys were terrific. Wecovered the bases we were insufficient in. At the end of the day, it was avery good win. We’ve mixed and matched our teams, and we’ve won justenough games to make the final, as we always wanted to do.”There was unstinting praise for Lee, who finished with 5 for 38 whiledenting Indian chances with every spell he bowled. “I’ve said that I thinkhe’s the best one-day bowler,” he said. “It’s very rare that he doesn’tget wickets with the new ball. And you know that during the middle of theinnings, if you go back to someone with that sort of pace, it’s going tobe difficult for new guys starting against him. It’s just been a pleasurewatching the way he’s going about his work at the moment.”The Brads, Hogg and Haddin, who gave Australia hope with a quickfire77-run partnership, were also singled out. “That was a very good piece ofbowling,” he said, when asked about the manner in which Hogg had outfoxedSuresh Raina. “He’s a pretty under-rated player for us. He’s done a verygood job for a long period of time now. When he gets a chance, he does thejob and no one loves his cricket more. He was a vital cog in the chaintonight, the guy we were always going to have to go to for a breakthroughin the middle overs. He did it twice, and did well with the bat as well.”As for Haddin, Ponting said that his displays in the tournament hadrevealed that a future without Adam Gilchrist might not be so frighteningafter all. “We’ve known for a long time that Brad is a very goodcricketer,” he said. “In most other teams around the world, he’d haveplayed a lot more cricket. He’s just had to wait a long time behind Gilly.You’ve seen the way he’s batted and the way he’s kept. He’s going to be agreat replacement when Adam moves on.”The concerns centred on the batting, once again below par against adisciplined Indian attack. “The running wasn’t great either,” he said witha wry grin. “We’ve got to get a lot better before the final. The battinghasn’t been good. We’ve got out of jail a couple of times – Huss’s hundredthe other day, and Haddin’s been terrific at seven. The guys at the tophaven’t got in and got the runs.”Amid the euphoria, there was also some words of praise for Dinesh Mongia’sfine effort. “I think we always knew he was that sort of player, and theyneeded that sort at the top of their order. I wasn’t surprised when[Mohammad] Kaif came out when he did, and him [Mongia] as well. We knew hecould play, and he was very dogged. Losing wickets around him, it was upto him to stay and steer them through, and he nearly did that.”Lee was understandably thrilled with his five-for, which took histournament returns to 8 for 84 from just two games. “It’s always nice toget two early wickets,” he said. “With a man like Sachin Tendulkar outthere, it’s nice to chance your arm against the best. Along with Ricky[Ponting] and Brian [Lara], he’s the best going around, so I’m prettyhappy.It’s just my second chance. The way the sides have been picked, it’s givenall of us an opportunity to get back into it, and the body is feelinggood. It came out well tonight. Every spell I came up and bowled, I feltconfident, we had fantastic fields.”And though Glenn McGrath didn’t pick up any wickets, his tightfistedness -25 runs conceded from eight overs – played a big part in Lee’s success.”It’s always great to have Glenn back,” he said. “The figures speak forthemselves. Looking forward to the big final coming up on Sunday, the ICCTrophy and the Ashes as well, it’s a big summer, and hopefully one thatGlenn and I will be part of.”He also praised Ponting for his support during the lean years, when heexpended lots of energy in the nets without making it into the XI. “When Iwasn’t bowling well, he sat me down and put a couple of different ideas inmy head,” he said. “Thinking back to Brisbane a couple of years ago, hehad a really good chat with me. We look at Ricky as one for guidance.”As a member of the pace-bowling fraternity, he was also delighted by themanner in which Stuart Clark bounced back after a mauling in the lastgame. “I said after the last game, it’s unfortunate the way one-daycricket goes. He’s the kind of bowler who can turn around straightaway.He’s gone from a disappointing match to bowling fantastic. He bowled atgood pace, had a fantastic caught-and-bowled. That definitely changed hisgame.”

And after walking a disciplinary tightrope in recent times, Ponting spenta couple of minutes having to answer questions about the Tendulkarincident that saw him exchange more than a few words with Mark Benson, whoreversed his caught-behind decision. “The umpire made his decision, andthen he reversed it. I think he actually got it right in the end. Heexplained the reason why. I wasn’t that happy at the time, but it was theumpire’s decision.”Ponting made it clear that he hadn’t approached the umpire to voice hisdispleasure. “I didn’t approach him, he called me over to explain why hehad changed his decision,” he said. “I didn’t actually see Sachin beingcalled back. I was in the middle of a group with the guys, and Mark wascalling me over to explain it.”He refused to accept that such controversial moments made a case for theincreased use of technology. “I’ve never been a great fan,” he saidcandidly. “We’ve experimented with a lot of things. The Super Test was onewhere the umpires could refer everything to the third umpire. There were afew that went either way. I think technology for line decisions, the wayit’s being used, is about as much as it should be used.”You have to understand that umpires are human and they will makemistakes. Much like the players – we probably make as many mistakes asanyone going around. I’m a big believer in leaving the human element in.”After his last transgression, Chris Broad, the match referee, hadsuggested that Ponting was on very thin ice. And but for the umpirestaking a benevolent view of his antics today, he might well have slippedunder. With the Champions Trophy and the Ashes looming, Australia canheave a sigh of relief that it hasn’t happened.

Scorecard

In what will definitely rank as a big upset, and one which Andy Pick, the Canada coach termed an “embarrassment”, Bermuda traipsed to a memorable six-wicket win in the opening one-dayer at Toronto. Having bowled out Canada for 145, Bermuda, thanks to a solid 39 from Saleem Mukkudem, knocked off the target in just 40 overs.”Since we arrived this morning, everything has been substandard,” said Pick in his assessment, “our warm-ups, our practice and our performance.” Not for the first time this season, Canada failed to put enough runs on the board, a trend hard to explain considering their good win in the four-day game, against the same opposition, earlier in the week.Mukkudem, who took Bermuda to victory with a six over long-off, couldn’t hide his excitement after the triumph. “It was a huge effort for us to put that defeat [in the four-day game] behind us,” he said. “We got off to a fantastic start. It was good to get [out] the guys who had got runs [in the four-day game] out cheaply.”Canada lost John Davison, their captain, and Desmond Chumney early. Both fell to the pace bowling of Kevin Hurdle. Ian Billcliff followed soon and Canada were in a deep hole at 21 for 3. Ashish Bagai began comfortably but he too didn’t last long, caught at backward square leg after making just 10 (46 for 4). Abdool Samad and Umar Bhatti added 29 for the sixth wicket before Bhatti was caught and bowled by Dwayne Leverock, diving to his left. Samad was out for what proved to be the top-score (28), driving Leverock into the hands of Irvine Romaine at cover.The Canadian innings was completed so quickly that Bermuda began their innings before lunch. The Bermudan opening batsmen, Borden and Outerbridge, scored 23 by the interval. Their partnership was broken with the score on 41 but there continued to be little success for the home bowlers. Canada sniffed a faint chance when Bermuda were 86 for 3 but Mukkudem and Janeiro Tucker played sensibly. They added 48 for the fourth wicket and Mukkudem stayed unbeaten till the end.There continues to be very little effort from the Canadian Cricket Association to promote the sport in this country, particularly these international matches. There was talk of selling off an existing inventory of merchandise at this summer’s home games but no evidence has been seen of that initiative to date. It seems hard to believe the World Cup is just seven months away.The two four-day matches in the Intercontintental Cup have been exciting and went down to the wire in the last hour of available playing time. The home ODIs have been disappointing but with plenty of latent cricket interest in the Toronto area it seems pathetic that a mere 30 people, including scorers and some officials, were dotted around the ground some ten minutes after play began. It cannot be much fun for the batsmen to hear louder roars for dismissals from the fielding side than the applause from home fans.Canada and Bermuda play again on Monday at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club. The ground is on Wilson Avenue, near the intersection with Avenue Road. Play is scheduled to begin at 10 am. This match is an ODI but also forms part of an ICC Americas Regional Tournament that takes place next week. All other matches in that event take place at Maple Leaf CC at King City. USA, Cayman Islands and Argentina are the three other sides in this tournament.

Sridharan Sriram stroked his way to an unbeaten 92 as Tamil Nadu madea confident start, scoring 153 for one wicket off 47 overs at close ofplay on the first day of their South Zone Ranji Trophy league matchagainst Andhra at the Guru Nanak college ground in Chennai onWednesday.Morning showers delayed the start of play but good work by the groundstaff saw the game start at 1.15 pm after a delay of 185 minutes.Winning the toss, Tamil Nadu were served well by openers Sriram andRajat Bhatia (21) who put on 62 runs off 20 overs. Bhatia was thencaught by Madhukar at mid off off Ranganath. His fall brought two lefthanders and India players Sriram and Hemang Badani together and thetwo proceeded to accelerate the scoring rate. Off 27 overs, the twoadded 91 runs for the unbroken second wicket when stumps were drawn.Play was extended by 60 minutes and 58 overs were to be bowled on thetruncated day. But bad light lopped off 11 overs towards the end.Sriram was the more aggressive of the two batsmen. He had announcedhis intentions early when he hit medium pacer Shahbuddin over squareleg for a rousing six. His purple patch came when he clouted offspinner H Vatekar for 17 runs off five successive balls (42461). Byclose, he had faced 154 balls and hit six fours and two sixes. Badani,who was composed during his innings of 33, faced 80 balls and hit twoof them to the ropes.

While 16 teams are already preparing for the World Cup in the Caribbean, Fiji, Japan and the Cook Islands are assembling in Brisbane to continue their pursuit of a place in the 2011 tournament.The three countries – the top teams in the ICC’s East Asia-Pacific (EAP) region – are set to compete for the EAP Cricket Trophy this week with the winner qualifying for the World Cricket League Division 3, to be held in early 2007.That tournament, in turn, will lead to Division 2 (to be held in late 2007) and then Division 1, also known as the ICC World Cup Qualifier, in 2009, with the top five sides from that event securing places in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup in the Asian sub-continent.”A place in the World Cricket League, which offers all Associate and Affiliate teams a pathway to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup, is a huge motivating factor for the developing cricket countries of East Asia and the Pacific,” explained Tim Anderson, the ICC regional development manager. “Fiji, Japan and the Cook Islands deserve this opportunity and, given the rewards at stake for the winner, the EAP Cricket Trophy will be a fantastic competition.”The EAP Cricket Trophy will be hosted by Queensland Cricket and played at the Redlands Cricket Club in Brisbane.Queensland Cricket Chief Executive Graham Dixon said: “Queensland Cricket is supportive of the ICC’s aim to develop cricket globally and is actively involved in this process through our partnership with PNG Cricket. We are proud to be hosting the EAP Cricket Trophy and look forward to witnessing some great cricket,” he added.Naoki Miyaji, General Secretary of the Japan Cricket Association, said cricket in Japan would receive a huge boost if the national side was successful in the EAP Cricket Trophy.”Cricket actually has a long history in Japan but the popularity of the sport has only started to grow in recent years,” he said. “We are very excited about doing well in this tournament but understand that Fiji and the Cook Islands will provide tough competition.”The Cook Islands is the only ICC Affiliate to be competing in the EAP Cricket Trophy, with Fiji and Japan both Associate members.”As an Affiliate Member we are delighted to have earned the opportunity to participate in the ICC World Cricket League, and certainly aren’t here to make up the numbers,” said Cook Islands Cricket Association President Vane Henry. “Everyone in the Cook Islands is behind our team and I have no doubt we will represent them well.”

With just one day to go for the annual elections of the Board of Control for Cricket in India it is still unclear whether Ranbir Singh Mahendra will have any opposition or not. Sharad Pawar, the man who opposed Mahendra last year and lost by the narrowest of margins in an acrimonious election, has refused to confirm or deny his intention to stand for the post of president. The constitution of the Indian board allows for candidates to enter the fray even as the annual general meeting gets underway.”I know there are quite a few well-wishers in the cricket board, but I am waiting for them to meet me first,” Pawar is quoted as saying in the . Pawar, who was in Delhi meeting various heads of state cricket associations believed to be opposed to Jagmohan Dalmiya, former board chief, and therefore Mahendra, also said, “Till Wednesday I am busy with my ministerial work, but on Thursday (the day of the election) I may go to Kolkata.”In all this Pawar refused to give a clear-cut answer on the question of his contesting for the post of board president. “I have not decided yet. But that does not mean I am not contesting. I am waiting for the court cases to reach a solution, then we will see how things pan out.”At the moment there are several cases pending that could have a direct impact on the election. Netaji Cricket Club in Chennai, now more famous for the number of cases they have filed against the BCCI than for their cricket, had asked the courts to appoint a presiding officer to conduct the elections. In response, the Calcutta High Court has appointed Justice Suhas Chandra Sen, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, as the observer for this election.There are other cases where the validity of certain members’ representation of the state associations of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh are being questioned.In fact, Dalmiya told the Press Trust of India, “I am totally confused. Press reports say that elections are on. But the elections depend on the outcome of the cases” .In another development, the Madras High Court has restrained the board from holding the polls till 12.30pm tomorrow.Another factor that could give Pawar reason for pause is that the next year (2006 AGM) will usher in the turn of the West Zone to nominate a candidate for the presidency. At the moment it is the turn of the North. Mahendra, who will complete one year as president tomorrow, has a chance to extend his term by another year. In case he does win the election, he could also seek a 12-month extension at the 2006 AGM.Therefore, if Pawar is to contest, he has to be nominated by a state association from the North Zone. Last time around it was Punjab who put him up. “We haven’t yet received a request (for nomination) from Mr Pawar, but if he does seek our help our administrative committee is going to take a decision,” Inderjit Singh Bindra, president of the Punjab Cricket Association, was quoted as saying by . It has also been suggested that Pawar could seek nomination via Jammu & Kashmir. But Farooq Abdullah, the president of the J & K cricket association, is away in Scotland at the moment, and no concrete information was available on that front.The one thing that is certain, however, is that the term of SK Nair, who has served as secretary of the board for three years, has come to an end. He is likely to be replaced by either Gautham Dasgupta, if the Mahendra faction wins, or Niranjan Shah, if the Pawar camp comes through. Dasgupta is currently a joint secretary of the BCCI while Shah is secretary of the Saurashtra cricket association.

Ian Harvey has been named in Victoria’s 13-man squad for the Pura Cup match against Western Australia at the Junction Oval from December 1. Harvey, who has recovered from his groin strain, is one of four inclusions to the side which thrashed New South Wales last week – Jason Arnberger, Bryce McGain and Shane Harwood are the other three. Andrew McDonald, who will undergo a surgery for a finger injury, Brendan Joseland and Brad Knowles have been omitted.Squad Cameron White (capt), Jason Arnberger, Matthew Elliott, Shane Harwood, Ian Harvey, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Mathew Inness, Bryce Mcgain, Jonathan Moss, Peter Roach, Graeme Rummans, Allan Wise.

The Indian cricket board has refused England’s request to play Twenty20 international matches on its tour of India early next year. The ECB was keen for England to play Twenty20 matches in India, but India’s board has rejected the proposal, because this form of cricket has not yet been played in India.”ECB is anticipating that the England team will play three Tests and seven one-day internationals on next year’s tour of India,” said John Carr, ECB director of cricket operations, told the news agency . “ECB’s understanding is that BCCI is not in favour of the Indian team playing Twenty20 international matches.” He also added, according to a report in the , that all seven one-day internationals would played against India only – and not form part of a triangular series. “We hope to play seven straight ODIs against India,” said Carr “We are expecting a draft itinerary from BCCI within a couple of weeks and both boards will be keen to promptly confirm the itinerary.”This is not the first time that the two boards have disagreed over proposed matches. In 2001, the ECB refused to play seven one-day internationals because its agreement with the BCCI, led by AC Muthiah at the time, had cited only five matches. After Jagmohan Dalmiya became BCCI president, he wanted England to play seven games on their tour. Eventually a compromise of six matches was reached and the series was drawn 3-3.David Morgan, the ECB chairman, told that he was discussing the 2006 tour’s itinerary with Dalmiya despite him not being a BCCI office-bearer. “We anticipate the international matches being played from early to middle of March through to middle to late April,” said Carr. He also said that a venue inspection team would visit India ahead of the series to inspect the arrangements. He said “It is ECB’s standard practice to visit some or all the venues to be used for a tour. The timing of any such visit is to be confirmed.”