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MS Dhoni, the India captain, has won the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for his decision to recall Ian Bell after his controversial run-out during the Trent Bridge Test

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Sep-2011MS Dhoni, the India captain, has won the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for his decision to recall Ian Bell after his controversial run-out during the Trent Bridge Test. Dhoni was unavailable to collect his award, though the Indian team was present in England.”While the initial appeal and umpire decision were correct to the letter of the law, the decision by Mahendra and his team to withdraw the appeal shows great maturity,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said. “To see players and officials uphold the great spirit of cricket, which has underpinned the game for more than a century, is very special.”Bell hit the last ball before tea on the third day in Nottingham towards the boundary. Having wrongly thought it had gone for four, Bell left his crease and headed towards the pavilion assuming the session was over and the ball dead. Meanwhile the ball, which had not reached the rope and therefore was still in play, was returned to the middle, the bails removed and Bell was correctly given run-out.Upon reflection during the tea interval and following a request from the England team, Dhoni withdrew the appeal and recalled Bell thus turning boos into cheers from the Nottingham crowd.Dhoni’s gesture was voted as the winner ahead of that of South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, who walked on two occasions during the World Cup after clarifying with opposition fielders directly that they had caught the ball cleanly, rather than waiting for the umpires to decide. Last year, the award had gone to the New Zealand team.

Abdul Razzaq, who will be the only Pakistan player participating in this year’s Champions League Twenty20 in India, has said he hopes cricketing relations between India and Pakistan improve

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2011Abdul Razzaq, who will be the only Pakistan player to participate in this year’s Champions League Twenty20 in India, has said he hopes cricketing relations between India and Pakistan improve, with matches between the two countries resuming and Pakistan players being included in the IPL. Razzaq will play for Leicestershire in the Champions League, and will be only the second Pakistan player to play in the tournament – Yasir Araft played for Sussex in the first tournament in 2009.”When we played in the ICL [Indian Cricket League] the whole charm of that league was Pakistan players playing in India, so I hope that after I go and play the Champions League, India also open the doors of the IPL to Pakistan players,” Razzaq said. “I have faced no problems playing in India and even in the worst of times people of India welcome Pakistan players with open hearts and I hope I am soon part of a Pakistan team playing against India.”Pakistan teams have not taken part in the Champions League, while Pakistan players have not played in the IPL since the tournament’s debut in 2008. Cricket relations between India and Pakistan were suspended after the Mumbai terror attacks of December 2008, with no bilateral series between the two countries since. Razzaq said he hoped that would change soon.”I hope the respective governments will negotiate to resume Indo-Pak cricket because without India and Pakistan playing each other, cricket is deprived of a high-profile, most-watched cricket series. Doors should always be open for sportsmen or else you change the name of cricket, because cricket is the binding force between these two countries, which we have seen in the past.”The ICC’s Future Tours Programme has scheduled a Test and ODI series between Pakistan and India for 2012, but while PCB chairman Ijaz Butt has said talks are progressing, there has been no official word from the BCCI on whether and where the series will go ahead.

Yusuf Pathan, the India allrounder, has said it is unfair to label him as a ‘one-day specialist’ given his performance on the first-class circuit

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Oct-2011Yusuf Pathan, the India allrounder, has said it is unfair to label him as a ‘one-day specialist’ given his performance on the first-class circuit, where he’s averaged 41.38 from 46 games. Yusuf is representing India Red in the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, and aiming for a comeback into the national side after missing out on the ODI series in England and the first two ODIs against the same opposition for the home series starting this week. His exclusion followed an ordinary World Cup with the bat and a poor time in the West Indies, where he averaged 10.5 from four ODI innings.”I can play at any position. If the team management wants me to bat up the order, I am ready for it,” Yusuf told the . “Whenever I spent time in the middle, I have made it count. Last year, I scored a match-winning hundred against New Zealand and then scored another hundred against South Africa. Besides, I have also scored big hundreds in Ranji and Duleep Trophy over the years. I enjoy batting for long periods.”Yusuf, who usually bats in the lower-middle order for India, played what he described as the “best innings of my career” when he smashed 210 in 190 balls for West Zone against South Zone in the Duleep Trophy in February last year, helping his team chase a record-breaking 536. He’s been preferred in the shorter versions for his big hitting, but Yusuf insisted his game is also suited for the five-day format. “The T20 craze has started only now, but I have been playing first-class cricket for a decade. I would also like to play Test matches. It’s unfair to label me as one-day specialist.”There is more to my batting than just hitting. You can’t succeed at the international level if you have limited strokes. I can play all round the wicket. If you analyse my hundreds, you will see I have scored runs on both sides of the wicket. I like to play aggressively and that’s the way I have played cricket all my life and I will continue to do so.”Due to India’s powerful batting line-up, with several of the big names batting in the top order, Yusuf said it was difficult not to adopt a risk-free approach when he came in to bat. “More often than not, one of the top-order batsmen scores big. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh love to bat long.”When I go in to bat, I normally get five to eight overs in which I have to score as many runs as possible. You can’t do that without taking risks. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes not. It can go either way. But I always try to give it my best shot. I won’t be making hundreds everyday, but if my quick 30s or 40s can make a difference, I will be a happy man.”

Brian Lara has said that the administrative infrastructure for cricket in the West Indies has to improve before the team can become consistently competitive again

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-2011Brian Lara, the former West Indies captain, has said that the administrative infrastructure for cricket in the West Indies has to improve before the team can become consistently competitive again.Lara, who scored 11,953 runs in 131 Tests, was speaking at the World Travel Market in London last week, where he was part of a contingent representing Trinidad & Tobago as a tourist destination. He was not surprised West Indies failed to hammer home the advantage in the first Test against India, and ultimately ended up losing by five wickets.”[We] still have a very long way to go,’ Lara told the . “I would not have been surprised if we won this game, because I know what we are capable of — sporadic, good sporadic performances — one here, one next year, but in terms of consistency, Trinidad, West Indies lack that, and that is not something that you regain overnight.”I think our infrastructure is terrible administratively, we have got it wrong on many occasions.”A key problem, according to Lara, was the tumultuous relationship between the cricket board and the players. “Our player-board relationship — that has gone wrong for many years, gone sour, and we need to improve these things, fix it, set a base, get the infrastructure in, and then think about five, ten years down the line.”So it might be a dismal outlook, but if we keep just trying to put a plaster on every sore that we have, it’s not going to work. So I hope one day somebody’s going to take it up and really get things going.”Lara said there was still plenty of cricketing talent in the region, but it needed to be developed and nurtured properly. “On any given day, I think we’ve got the best talented cricketers in the world,” Lara said. “It’s always been the case over the years, since even before my days … cricket has gone a long way now. Talent is only a very small part compared to 20, 30 years ago, when it was a major part — your physical fitness, your talent — that played a bigger role.”Now [with] technology, there is a lot of things coming into play, and I say it all the time — we in the West Indies take very good talent and make it average, and people like Australia and England and India take average talent and make it very, very good, and that is where the problem lies.”

Sulakshan Kulkarni, the Mumbai coach, says Kaustubh Pawar typifies the defiant attitude of Mumbai batsman and says it is nice to have a batsman in the side who is willing to keep the ball on the ground

Abhishek Purohit at the Holkar Cricket Stadium03-Jan-2012Kaustubh Pawar came out to bat at No. 3 yesterday and saw Mumbai lose half their side with 60 runs on the board. A day later, he calmly got forward to ease the final delivery of day two to the long-off boundary to take Mumbai to 346 for 7. It was Pawar’s 322nd delivery, many of which had beaten him. Some of them had him falling to the ground as he looked to avoid them. One of them even hit him on the helmet. But he battled through it all for almost eight hours to end unbeaten on 160 and put his side on top.Pawar, 21, defied a testing Madhya Pradesh attack in the pressure situation of a knockout game in his debut first-class season. More importantly, he did it despite struggling to find rhythm in his batting till he reached three figures. It was the kind of single-minded devotion to the cause that Mumbai needed, and coach Sulakshan Kulkarni hailed Pawar as the quintessential Mumbai batsman. “What is a Mumbai batsman? Someone who can play with that [defiant] attitude,” Kulkarni said. “Someone who can stand all day and make a hundred in 250 deliveries. Pawar is that kind of batsman.”Kulkarni said that Pawar’s presence was vital in a line-up that contains stroke-makers like Suryakumar Yadav and Wasim Jaffer. “The phase that the Mumbai team is currently in, we needed someone like him. We need someone who can hold one end up. There are a lot of stroke-makers in this team. But you also need a player in the Rahul Dravid mould. Kaustubh fits that role.”He has been given that role. Surya [Yadav] is the free bird of the side. He has the mandate to go out and play strokes. Kaustubh cannot do what Surya does, and vice versa.”Kulkarni also said that with the advent of the IPL, batsmen had started to play a lot of shots in the air. Having a batsman like Pawar who was able and willing to bat in the conventional way was a huge positive for Mumbai, he said. “If you observe, he hardly played a shot in the air.
In these times, it is extremely difficult to find a batsman who plays shots along the ground. I can recall only one more name among the current lot who does that: Cheteshwar Pujara. It is extremely valuable to have such a player.”Pawar had had a discussion with his coach before the start of play today with Mumbai 122 runs behind and had assured him that he would not throw his wicket away. “I had told him to hang in there, and he had promised me that he will remain unbeaten at stumps today, which he did,” Kulkarni said.Pawar said his mandate was to tire the MP bowlers out which he was able to do successfully. “There was a little nervousness given the situation we were in. We knew that the first 30-45 minutes would be crucial. I and Hiken [Shah] were able to get through that period. They were bowling well initially but later got tired.”There was no weariness in Pawar’s demeanour though. As soon as he hit the last ball of the day for four, he walked back eagerly with a broad smile towards a grateful Mumbai dressing-room. A maiden double-hundred, which Pawar said he has never made in a “big match”, beckons.

Netherlands cricket has received a major boost after securing a four-year sponsorship deal with the major Dutch bank ABN AMBRO

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jan-2012Netherlands cricket has received a major boost after securing a four-year sponsorship deal with the major Dutch bank ABN AMBRO. It will allow them to pump more money into central contracts as they build towards the 2015 World Cup.As with other Associate nations, Netherlands’ players have to balance their cricket careers with full-time jobs to ensure they can make a living. Some of their leading stars, like Ryan ten Doeschate and Alexei Kervezee, play county cricket – where Netherlands compete in the CB40 competition – while Tom Cooper has reached as far as the Australia A setup. Currently three players have contracts with the Netherlands board but they now expect that to increase.”We are delighted to be able to secure this deal, which also provides us with a two-fold opportunity,” Richard Cox, the Netherlands chief-executive, said. “Firstly we will be able to offer considerably more full-time playing contracts to our players and effectively turn professional for the foreseeable four years and beyond. Secondly we will be able to offer a career-path for our best young cricketers from our development programmes in to the national team. This is a sea-change for the future of Dutch cricket and is the fruit of many months of work by team manager Ed van Nierop and the KNCB.”Netherlands took part in last year’s World Cup but did not manage to win any of their group matches, although they gave England a tough outing when ten Doeschate struck 119 in Nagpur. In March they will be one of 16 teams taking part in the World Twenty20 qualifiers in Dubai, from which two sides will qualify for the main event in Sri Lanka. Their attention will then turn to preparing for the next World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, in 2015.

Brendon McCullum has said BJ Watling has got “natural ability” as a wicketkeeper, and has backed him to do well with the gloves in New Zealand’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jan-2012Brendon McCullum has said BJ Watling has got “natural ability” as a wicketkeeper, and has backed him to succeed in New Zealand’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Napier.McCullum kept wickets for New Zealand in 51 Tests but in 2010 he decided he wanted to play as a specialist batsman. Since then Gareth Hopkins and Reece Young have played in the role, but New Zealand are now looking for a new Test wicketkeeper. Watling, who played six Tests as a batsman, will have an opportunity to prove he can fill the position long term.McCullum said the fact that Watling had only played two first-class games as a keeper was a concern but not a major one. “The only thing you worry about is if he [Watling] has got the volume under his belt. But none of that matters; if he gets a go we’ve got to get right behind him.”I know he’s got the skills to do it and I guess everyone will be taking a punt on the fact that he can handle the workload as well. He’s certainly got some natural ability. It’s just about him getting back to keeping for long periods. I’m sure he’ll do well. It’s not a bad deck to start on as well.”Ross Taylor, the New Zealand captain, said they had decided to pick Watling ahead of the other keeper in the squad, Kruger van Wyk, even before Watling scored 84 in the practice game against the Zimbabweans.”I guess every time you select someone there’s the hope they take the spot and can fill it for years to come,” Taylor said. “I think BJ always had the inside running. The way he kept in Gisborne was promising and he had a good knock with the bat in the first innings. It was always going to be BJ but it was nice to see him score some runs and keep pretty well.”Taylor also said New Zealand would not relax after beating Australia for the first time in 26 years, in Hobart in December last year. “We’ve got to build on the momentum we’ve gained from the Hobart Test,” he said. “We don’t want to dine off that for years to come; we know we created history but we want to get consistent performances. What better place to start than our first home game of the season.”New Zealand will use the same combination in Napier as they did in Hobart, with Daniel Vettori at No. 6 and four quicks in the side. McCullum said that line-up suited New Zealand’s style of play.”I like that balance; it allows the batters to play with a bit more freedom knowing they’ve got an attack that can bowl a team out,” McCullum said. “The formula for us winning Test matches consistently could well be similar to the formula we had over there [in Hobart]; play four seamers and have a little bit in the wicket.”We probably will not have high-scoring 400-500 games, but games more along the lines of trying to eke out 280-300, or if you bat well you get 350-400.”

Deccan Chargers have signed five Indian uncapped cricketers for the 2012 IPL, one of whom isTanmay Mishra, who is currently playing for Kenya

Dustin Silgardo18-Feb-2012Deccan Chargers have signed five Indian uncapped cricketers for the 2012 IPL, one of whom is Tanmay Mishra, who plays for Kenya. Mishra, who was born in Mumbai, has never played a first-class or List A game for any Indian side; but a spokesperson for Chargers explained that since he holds an Indian passport*, Mishra is eligible to be bought as an Indian uncapped player.This also means Mishra will not have to be counted among the four foreign players each franchise is allowed to play in an IPL game.Chargers have also signed Uttar Pradesh batsman Tanmay Srivastava, who was part of the now dissolved Kochi Tuskers Kerala last year, Orissa batsman Biplab Samantray, Madhya Pradesh medium-pacer TP Sudhindra and 21-year-old Hyderabad opening batsman Akshath Reddy.Mishra, a 25-year-old middle-order batsman, was one of the few bright spots for Kenya during the 2011 World Cup; he scored two half-centuries, including an innings of 72 against Australia in Bangalore. On the day Chargers announced they had signed him, Mishra scored 70 not out in Kenya’s win against Ireland in a World Cricket League Championship in Mombasa.Reddy and Sudhindra have both earned IPL contracts on the back of impressive Ranji seasons. Sudhindra was the leading wicket-taker in the Elite division with 40 wickets at an average of 18.70. Reddy, in his second season, scored 524 runs at an average of 65.50, with three centuries.Samantray scored his maiden first-class century in the 2011-12 Ranji season, an innings of 171 against Uttar Pradesh, while Srivastava, at just 22 years old, has already played 45 first-class matches and 26 List A matches, and has six centuries in each format. He played seven matches for Kings XI Punjab spread across the 2008 and 2009 editions of the IPL, but did not have much chance to contribute with the bat.* February 18, 2012 18:16 GMT: This article said Tanmay Mishra held dual citizenship of India and Kenya. This has been corrected.

Adam Gilchrist will double up as coach-cum-captain at Kings XI Punjab starting this season

Nagraj Gollapudi23-Mar-2012

Injured Rimmington out

Western Australia fast bowler Nathan Rimmington is injured and has been ruled out for the entire IPL season. Rimmington has been diagnosed with medial tibial plateau stress reaction.
Kings XI had picked Rimmington at the auction last year for $20,000. The franchise said that they would not be seeking any replacement for Rimmington because they have a spare overseas fast bowler in Australia left-armer James Faulkner.

Adam Gilchrist will double up as coach-cum-captain at Kings XI Punjab starting this season. The franchise has appointed Gilchrist, the former Australia wicketkeeper, as head coach for the next three years.Gilchrist will find ample Australian support on the coaching bench: Joe Dawes, the newly-appointed India bowling coach, and Mike Young, fielding consultant previously with Cricket Australia, would serve as Kings XI bowling and fielding coaches respectively. Vikram Rathour, currently coach of the Punjab state team in domestic cricket, will be the assistant coach to Gilchrist.Gilchrist replaced his former Australia teammate Michael Bevan, whose contract was not renewed by the franchise. “We were impressed with his leadership and his technical skills in his first year at Punjab. So it was a natural progression to make him in charge of everything cricket at KXIP,” Arvinder Singh, the head of the franchise’s management, told ESPNcricinfo.Arvinder said the franchise felt there was no need for an exclusive head coach for various reasons. “You don’t have access to your players through the year. You just get to meet them a week to ten days before the IPL starts and then you play sixteen games through the season. So the coach is not going to be somebody who is going to upgrade your skills during that period,” Arvinder said. “You need a person who can understand each individual and the kind of value he brings to the team and utilise it to the maximum.”Gilchrist, Arvinder pointed out, was the right person in the right place to accomplish that. “Gilchrist is the captain and with his vast experience is in a good position. It is best to let one guy decide along with the right support staff and let him decide things.”Meanwhile, Patrick Farhart, who served as Kings XI physiotherapist in the first three seasons of the IPL before moving last year to Mumbai Indians has returned.Edited by Abhishek Purohit

Sri Lanka won their first home Test since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan as they completed a 75-run victory over England in Galle

The Report by George Dobell29-Mar-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Rangana Herath expertly exploited a turning surface and England’s deficiencies against spin bowling•AFP

Sri Lanka won their first home Test since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan in July 2010 as they completed a 75-run victory over England in Galle. Sri Lanka had, until this game, played 17 Tests and won just one since Murali’s retirement as the leading Test wicket-taker.Having set England a mammoth 340 to win, Sri Lanka endured a few nervous moments as Jonathan Trott, in particular, batted with great fortitude. In the end, though, the target was too great and Sri Lanka held their nerve.It was another spinner, Rangana Herath, who led Sri Lanka’s victory charge; he took 12 wickets in the match and expertly exploited a turning surface and England’s deficiencies against spin bowling.It might be tempting, then, to claim that Sri Lanka have discovered a replacement for Murali. In truth, Sri Lanka are learning new ways to win. With Murali in the side, life was relatively easy; his excellence allowed Sri Lanka to mask other weaknesses. Those days have gone and may never return.The Sri Lanka team still contains match-winners, though. Mahela Jayawardene’s first-innings century – a magnificent innings – provided a welcome reminder of his genius, while Kumar Sangakkara remains one of the finest batsmen in world cricket.Generally, however, they are now a team that require contributions from every individual.Herath is a perfect example. He is a skilled performer, certainly. He bowls with pleasing flight, has all the traditional variations and has excellent control. His second-innings performance was his ninth five-wicket haul and left him the fifth Sri Lanka bowler to claim ten wickets in a Test.But he is no Murali. Only three years ago he was plying his trade as a journeymen pro – and with modest success – in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire League, while a spell as overseas player with Hampshire produced just ten first-class wickets at an average of 46.30.In these conditions, however, he is a tough proposition. And, with the support of Suraj Ranjiv and two underrated seamers, he was able to apply pressure on a batting line-up lacking competence and confidence.Herath was also supported by some outstanding fielding. The wicketkeeper, Prasanna Jayawardene, enjoyed an excellent came with bat and gloves. But, in a match that took many twists and turns, perhaps the defining moment came when Lahiru Thirimanne clung on to a desperately tough chance at short leg to end a fifth-wicket partnership that looked as if it could take England to a record-breaking victory.Matt Prior and Trott added 81 runs. With the field pushed back, the pair were able to rotate the strike and accumulate without undue risk.Then, however, Prior connected well with a sweep only to see Thirimanne, anticipating the path of the ball as he saw the batsman shape for the shot, react brilliantly to hold on after it struck him on the body. The dismissal precipitated a dramatic collapse as England lost their last six wickets for only 31 runs.Defeat was cruel reward for Trott. Trott’s century, a wonderful example of patience, technique and concentration, would, in many circumstances, have deserved to win a Test. As it was, however, he was unable to compensate for the failure of his colleagues.Trott’s seventh Test century sustained England’s hopes of a remarkable win until the brink of tea but his dismissal, caught at leg slip as he attempted to turn an off break into the leg side, ended any realistic hopes the tourists may have had.On the final day Trott helplessly watched on as Kevin Pietersen – now averaging just 12.50 on England’s winter tours – was beaten in the flight and chipped to midwicket and Ian Bell missed a premeditated sweep. Samit Patel, trying to give himself room and hit through the off side, was another man to be superbly caught at the second attempt by Tillakaratne Dilshan at short extra cover, before Graeme Swann, attempting an ugly sweep, was leg before the two left-hand tailenders were soon mopped up by Randiv’s off-spin.The result sentenced England to their fourth successive Test defeat. For the No.1 rated team who, only a few months ago, were talking about setting a legacy, that is an acute embarrassment.They need not look too far to see where they want wrong. They simply made too many mistakes. In dropping Mahela Jayawardene four times during the course of his match-defining century they were profligate beyond repair. Stuart Broad’s no-ball to Prasanna Jayawardene – and the manner in which Sri Lanka’s last two wickets were able to eke out more than 50 runs in each innings (65 in the first and 87 in the second) – were also costly.Most pertinently, though, England’s batsmen continue to struggle against spin bowling. To be bowled out within 47 overs on a blameless second day track was always likely to prove decisive. Andrew Strauss, Pietersen and Bell (despite his half-century in the first innings) are all in need of runs in Test cricket and it was telling that, even in their second innings, when England batted so much better, they lost all ten of their wickets to spin.Perhaps, though, they can take just a little encouragement from certain aspects of this performance. England have never made more than 332 to win in the fourth innings of a Test but, set 340 here, there were moments when they threatened to go close. Yes, they fell short, but they at least showed some of the fight and fibre that was missing in the UAE.