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The forthcoming series between Pakistan and Australia will not be played at a neutral venue or in Australia as a last resort, the Pakistan board has reiterated., quoting an unnamed official, recently reported that the PCB would consider shifting the series – to be held in March-April 2008 – to Australia in a “worst-case scenario” in which conditions in Pakistan were not conducive to hosting the series. But Nasim Ashraf, chairman PCB, denied the report, stressing that the series will be played, as scheduled, in Pakistan.”The PCB has only one position on this series,” Ashraf told reporters in Hyderabad. “Australia will play in Pakistan as per their commitment in March-April 2008. There is no question of it being played at a neutral venue or swapping venues and playing in Australia at this time.”We have a visit to Australia at the end of 2009 and we will fulfill that as well. But the current series against Zimbabwe has shown that cricket is not affected by such things.”Pakistan has been rocked by a particularly turbulent year of political unrest and violence, which culminated with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, at the end of December last year. General elections were due to be held in the country on January 8, but have now been postponed to February 18.Several Australian players have voiced their concerns about touring Pakistan, but Cricket Australia’s stance on the issue has always been firm: any final decision on the tour will be made after a security delegation has assessed the on-ground situation in Pakistan. The visit is expected to take place soon after elections.”They are coming and the tour is on as far as we know,” said Ashraf. “We have given every assurance to the Australian High Commission. I am surprised but those statements [in the Australian press] were not made by any PCB official.”

Scorecard

Victoria remained the Twenty20 kings with a third consecutive title as Western Australia were hit by a Blizzard and a Cyclone at the WACA. Aiden Blizzard’s blitz of 47 from 20 balls helped the Bushrangers reach 203 and despite an exciting 86 from Shaun Marsh, the Warriors fell 32 short in their chase.The major problem for Western Australia, apart from the hefty target, was the fast, accurate bowling from Dirk Nannes. The nickname on his back read “Cyclone” and he lived up to the moniker, sweeping up four wickets and pushing into the high 140kph region as the Warriors spiralled to defeat.He struck two early blows to derail the chase and returned at the end for two more, including Marsh, who had combined with Theo Doropoulos to give the Warriors a sniff after they had crashed to 5 for 59. Marsh belted four sixes in his 55-ball innings but was running out of time when he cracked a Nannes full toss to Cameron White at midwicket.He had already lost his key partner, Doropoulos, who was on 43 when he chipped back to the bowler David Hussey. Victoria’s spinners Hussey and Bryce McGain troubled the middle order but it was Nannes’ early strikes that set the scene.In what Perth fans will hope is not an omen for the WACA Test, which starts on Wednesday, the home side’s reply began with a contentious catch first ball. Luke Ronchi tried to evade a shortish Nannes delivery that flicked his gloves and might have fallen just short of the wicketkeeper Adam Crosthwaite, who claimed the take.It was a disappointing start to a challenging chase after Victoria worked their way to 8 for 203. They started brilliantly, reaching 0 for 65 from five overs, an effort that was largely thanks to Blizzard, who took 28 off one Danny McLauchlan over. Four sixes featured in those six balls, and one was flat-batted wide of midwicket so lethally that it ended up in the practice nets adjacent to the ground.Twice in their innings Victoria lost 3 for 5 but around those mini-collapses they were able to build a healthy score. Hussey added 38 and finished the tournament as the second leading run scorer behind only Marsh. One of the few Victorians who did not contribute was Rob Quiney, who fell to one of the most remarkable catches in recent memory.Quiney pulled Ben Edmondson to deep midwicket and David Bandy, hard up on the rope and with the sun in his eyes, jumped, stretched his right-hand above his head and pulled in the grab with both feet off the ground, baseball-style. He then had the challenge of landing back in the field of play and managed the feat with the grace of an Olympic gymnast, finishing with a pivot and swivel to acknowledge the crowd’s cheers.But his team-mates could not match his perfect ten and the title slipped away from Western Australia. Victoria, who have lost only one match in the three seasons of the domestic Twenty20 tournament, will head to the Champions Twenty20 league in October as arguably the world’s most in-form side in the shortest format.

Alex Obanda, the 19-year old Kenyan batsman, has injured his right ankle and will miss the four-day ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Bermuda starting tomorrow.Obanda, who scored an 82-ball 79 in the first ODI against Bermuda, sustained the injury while fielding in the second match and was unable to bat as a result. The injury also forced Obanda to sit out of the final ODI against Bermuda on Sunday.It was earlier thought that Obanda would be fit to play the four-day match but the doctor treating him warned that the injury was likely to be aggravated in the event of Obanda returning anytime soon.Obanda was instrumental in Kenya’s nine-wicket victory over Canada in Nairobi earlier this month, scoring 83 while putting on a 122-run third-wicket partnership with David Obuya that laid the foundation for a first-innings score of 393.The victory earned Kenya a maximum of 20 points and a fifth place going into the second game with Bermuda. Their opponents, meanwhile, are still seeking a win after two matches in the first-class tournament.

Musical chairs at the top
“We have many openers in our team,” Shoaib Malik said at the toss. “Today we’ll go with Salman Butt and Imran Nazir.” With that Malik confirmed Pakistan were giving Butt his fourth opening partner in five one-dayers; Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi and Malik being the first three. It was Nazir’s first opportunity of the series and he shelved his reckless approach and scored a subdued 20 off 40 balls. The end result was an opening stand of 65: Pakistan’s highest of the series.Maiden maiden-over
If Praveen Kumar had any nerves when Mahendra Singh Dhoni gave him the new ball on his ODI debut, he did a spectacular job of concealing them. His first two balls were left alone by Butt; the third beat the bat with a hint of swing away from the left-hander; the fourth should have been put away but Rohit Sharma’s sharp fielding at midwicket prevented any runs; the fifth was defended back to the bowler; and Butt left the final ball alone to allow Kumar to complete a maiden maiden-over.Done in by legspin
Sreesanth had bowled a poor opening spell, conceding 20 off his first three overs. Dhoni changed his end for his second spell and Sreesanth looked a different bowler. He picked up Butt and Yasir Hameed in consecutive overs to top up his confidence levels and then slipped in a clever legcutter to Nazir, who wound up to give it an almighty thump. He played the shot too early and although he made firm contact, the ball went straight to Sreesanth who took a sharp return catch. It was his 50th wicket in ODIs.Generous with extras
Perhaps it was because three leading bowlers – Zaheer Khan, RP Singh and Harbhajan Singh – were missing, or due to the lack of intensity in a dead rubber, but India’s bowlers gave away 18 runs in wides after conceding only two in Gwalior. Yuvraj and Sreesanth were the most lax, bowling four wides each, and one of Yuvraj’s leg-side indiscretions beat Dhoni and went to the boundary.An exercise in futility … and marketing
The drinks trolley for this series is shaped like an oversized soft-drink can and you can’t help but feel for the people lugging it on to the field at every drinks break. They wheel it to the middle and open it up to reveal the refreshments inside only to be ignored by both sets of players. The Pakistan batsmen had their own drinks brought to them by the reserves while a golf cart sped out, carrying the Indians’ energy drinks and supplements. The drinks trolley was a futile exercise … unless you’re an marketing person.An endangered species
The introduction of the free-hit has made it a criminal offence to bowl a front foot no-ball. Bowlers are extra careful about measuring their run-ups and the no-ball has become so rare – there were none in Gwalior – that, when it occurs, you sit up and wait in anticipation for the free-hit that follows. Kumar overstepped the crease for the first time today in the 48th over. The umpire called no-ball and then twirled his hand above his head signalling the free-hit. Fawad Alam took his time, eyeing the vacant spots in the outfield. The crowd waited eagerly as Kumar ran in and bowled a full ball. Alam connected well and sent the ball racing towards long-off for a double. It was a bit of an anti-climax.First time lucky, second time …
Robin Uthappa was promoted up the order because he had hardly got an opportunity to play a substantial innings in the first four games. He scored one run off seven balls before edging his eighth, off Rao Iftikhar Anjum, straight to Misbah-ul-Haq at first slip. It was a simple chance but the ball went right in, and out, of Misbah’s hands. Two balls later Uthappa gave Misbah a chance to redeem himself, edging another regulation catch in his directionp. This time he was headed to the dressing room while all was forgiven between Anjum and Misbah. A few overs later, Misbah watched an edge from Tendulkar fly past him at gully, before taking the next one that flew to him the very next ball.Hey Mr DJ
The spectators at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium were kept entertained by the Hindi dance numbers that played over the PA system. They got to their feet between every over to move to the beats of popular Bollywood music. The procession of Hindi songs was suddenly interrupted by a remixed version of Pink Floyd’s . The crowd fell relatively silent but perked up once again after normal service quickly resumed.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary

Pedro Collins gave Australia a huge scare before they replied with a frightening performance to secure an impressive come-from-behind victory. The Aussies rose from a debilitating 4 for 38 through Simon Katich and an Australian-record ninth-wicket partnership between Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee, who then led a strangulating bowling effort with four wickets.After letting Australia escape when they fielded, West Indies showed few signs of urgency in their chase of 269, leaving too much for a middle order containing Brian Lara at No. 5. As Lara skyed Lee, his side’s final hope of leapfrogging Pakistan on the tri-series table vanished, and he must have wondered how things had turned round so quickly (6 for 153).It was a disappointing end to a day that began so well for West Indies. A second dose of Collins proved too much for a sick Australian top order as they melted in heat hovering around 40 degrees Celsius. Collins, who took 3 for 8 when Australia were 5 for 43 at Brisbane, found his swinging groove again with a devastating four-wicket opening spell and a career-best performance that toppled an ill-disciplined and out-of-form line-up.Lee countered for Australia by being on a hat-trick in his second over after dismissing both openers with assistance from Brad Haddin. Wavell Hinds nicked his first delivery, and Lee struck again when he angled a ball down the leg side that flicked Chris Gayle’s glove. Haddin snapped up a stunning, one-handed diving catch (2 for 3). Shivnarine Chanderpaul padded up to the next delivery, but survived the loud appeal.

Returning for his second spell, Lee was on another hat-trick after removing Lara and Courtney Browne, and was again declined an lbw shout. By then Chanderpaul, who registered a solid half-century when a sparkling one was needed, was run out by a combination of Michael Clarke and Hinds, his runner, and West Indies were unable to lift their pace to match the required run rate.Australia had little problem maintaining their scoring despite wickets initially blowing like plastic beer cups. Katich, the stand-in batsman whose 76 was his first one-day half-century, provided Australia with a valuable tonic from No. 6 in reply to Collins, who was regularly unplayable and finished with 5 for 43.A fantastic rearguard was responsible for the total, which would have been much worse if Lee and Gillespie had not stepped in with a lively 73-run stand. Lee was unbeaten on 38 and Gillespie 44 as they clipped and chipped into the West Indies, including taking 15 from the final over.The Australia Day public holiday turned from a lazy stroll into a batsman’s afternoon to forget by the ninth over, when Australia were in disarray at 4 for 38. Suddenly Andrew Symonds, a player with five ducks and a 20 in his past six innings, and Katich were asked to haul their side from disaster.Katich proved capable but Symonds, looking like an unsure tap dancer as his feet started slowly, was only briefly entertaining in making 31. Symonds shared a 47-run stand with Katich and appeared comfortable again until he edged Hinds through to Browne (5 for 85).Playing his second one-day international of the season, Katich calmly scored at a run a ball in a mature innings that eased the nerves. With Haddin, Katich added 82 and, despite losing five wickets, Australia were still jetting towards a comfortable total. Then Dwayne Bravo deceived Haddin and Brad Hogg, while Katich was hit by a severe, late Collins inswinger that dented the charge until Lee and Gillespie arrived (8 for 196).Collins’s fifth wicket was his most impressive, but his early collection also glittered. Clarke lashed 12 from his first over before Collins added to Matthew Hayden’s wretched season with his first strike. Trying to hit out of his struggles, Hayden aimed a slog through midwicket and clipped an under-edge to Browne. Two balls later Collins collected Ricky Ponting’s leading edge (2 for 24).The next target was Clarke, and Collins knocked him over when he left a gap between bat and pad for a very useful inswinger. Darren Lehmann walked out to three slips and a bouncer, and stepped off following a pull similar to Hayden’s (4 for 38). But the early disruption to the holiday festivities was overcome, and it soon became the national team’s night. They even finished with a bonus point.Peter English is the Australasian editor of Cricinfo.

Somerset needed to score at 5 runs per over to win this game but throughsome disciplined and aggressive bowling from the Leicestershire attack theywere always behind the asking rate.Jimmy Ormond once again was the pick of the bowlers and picked up his firstwicket in only the second over of the innings. Bowler edged a ball to secondslip to give Darren Maddy an easy catch. The ball previous saw Maddy drop achance given by Lathwell also at second slip.It wasn’t too long before Lathwell became Ormonds second victim when hefollowed a wide delivery which found the edge through to the wicket keeper.At this point Somerset were only scoring at 2 runs per over and the pressurewas beginning to show. Burns unable to pierce the in field then set off for a risky single which resulted in a run out.You felt that as long as Jamie Cox was at the crease there was always achance for Somerset but when Scott Boswell picked up his prize wicket inonly his second over, Somerset’s chances of victory were diminishing. He wasbrilliantly caught by the diving wicket keeper Neil Burns.Parsons tried to continue the fight and looked in good form. He struck themedium pace of Billy Stelling for a huge six over mid off giving impetous tothe innings. However, Stelling fought back by clean bowling Parsons in the29th over. By this time Somerset’s chances were almost gone and continued tolose their wickets consistantly.Leicestershire thoroughly deserved this win and they now can look forward toplaying once again in the top division.

Greg Chappell has warned of a regimented approach taking hold of cricket and stifling natural instinct. He identified scientists and academics with little playing experience as a threat, and said that strong-minded people with a sense of the game could counter it.Describing them in gangland terms, Chappell said they were a “mafia” that had complicated training and squeezed players’ enjoyment and understanding of the game, according to the . He said he felt that the world was following the Australian way, but didn’t realise that the present players had reached the national team because of older systems.”These new methods are not the methods that got us to where we are,” Chappell said. “They have come in subsequent to the development of most of the players in the present Australian team.” He highlighted the Australian Academy as a case in point. “I worked in my last few years with South Australia with the first generation who have come through this new system and they’re lost. They don’t understand the game, they don’t have an intrinsic love for it because they’ve never been emotionally involved. They don’t watch any cricket, they don’t know where the game has come from and they are confused.”What they needed, Chappell believed, was a firm guiding hand, an ability to broaden their horizons, and play positively. That’s what the great West Indians had in common. “Garry Sobers, Viv Richards, Dessie Haynes, all your great players, didn’t know what made them play the cover-drive or the hook the way they did, but could they ever play them!” said Chappell. “To try to explain to them the biomechanics of it all would just confuse them. The more structure you get at an early age, the more it messes you up.”Chappell suggested that the monotonous regularity of a bowling machine could not prepare batsmen for a match situation, where bowlers had different ball-release times, and were sometimes, in the case of Wes Hall – and Paul Adams of more recent vintage – a flurry of movements. “When Wes Hall was bowling, all arms and legs, the important part of batting was to time your movements with his movements. You don’t get that with a bowling machine. Bowling machines don’t replicate what a bowler does.”Chappell said that changing times had brought new methods, and though he wasn’t one for sticking to the past, to dismiss old methods as outdated was missing the point. “Society has changed and the game has changed with it. We can’t go backwards and I don’t propose that we do.”But we’ve got to look at the things that made us great, not reject them out of hand and replace them with new approaches like biomechanics that are not yet proven to be workable and that, in other sports like swimming and athletics, have been tried and discarded.”

One of the most satisfying aspects of South Africa’s reaching the final of the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Christchurch, New Zealand to coach Hylton Ackerman was the contribution of the eight players of colour in his side.Compared to when South Africa returned to international cricket in 1992 the differences were immense.”To have eight players of colour is a huge difference to what it was,” he said.Those players also made an immense contribution to the side and Ackerman referred to team captain Hashim Amla as his “Graeme Pollock”.He could also reflect on an outstanding innings today by wicket-keeper Zwelibanzi Homani whose half century got the side over 200 runs in the final.But it was the run outs of his two best players of spin bowling Amla and David Jacobs that crippled South Africa in the final.”Three weeks ago I said to the players imagine if they ran out Graeme Pollock in front of 30,000 people at a ground in South Africa, which side of the ground would they leave from, and my Pollock ran himself out today,” he said.”But the Australians deserved to win, for the way they played the entire tournament. And I think it was great that they played four spinners in a one-day team.”Their captain Cameron White was also outstanding. With all respects to my own captain, he was yards ahead of anyone else here. And their left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty really impressed me.”We may have lost the final but the learning process for our team here has been unbelievable.”

Brett Lee will undergo surgery to his left ankle at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Sydney on Thursday afternoon in an attempt to relieve him from pain in the back of his ankle. He will also use the enforced break to correct an ongoing posterior impingement problem.Errol Alcott, Australia’s physiotherapist, explained Lee had been troubled by the condition for some time. "Due to the increased workload during the first 3 Test match against Zimbabwe in Perth, Brett felt pain in his ankle that he has had on and off during the past season," he said. "With the injury to his stomach muscle we were presented with a window of opportunity to also correct this problem while Brett takes a break from competition."Brett will be reviewed again towards the end of November following an intensive rehabilitation program."

Australia will begin their tour of India with a warm-up game in Mumbai, instead of Hyderabad as was originally scheduled. According to a Reuters report, the venue was changed after officials from Cricket Australia voiced their dissatisfaction with the facilities at the Uppal Stadium, a newly constructed venue in Hyderabad. Australia, who were supposed to play a Board President’s XI team there, will now take on Mumbai, the Ranji Trophy champions, in a three-day game at the Brabourne Stadium.Speaking about the change in the itinerary, SK Nair, the BCCI secretary, clarified that though the board thought the venue would be ready in time for the game, it opted to play it safe. The dates remain the same though – September 30 to October 2.This will be the third time in succession that Australia will play Mumbai on their tour to India. Their two earlier instances haven’t been happy ones. In 1997-98, Sachin Tendulkar blitzed an unbeaten 204 to help Mumbai win, while in 2000-01, Mumbai had the better of a drawn game after taking the first innings lead.