John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, believes the conditions in the West Indies have pushed Sri Lanka towards World Cup favouritism. Bracewell made the assessment after watching his side lose to Bangladesh on a turning surface in Barbados on Tuesday and he will have another opportunity to gauge Tom Moody’s squad in New Zealand’s final warm-up on Friday.”Sri Lanka, given those conditions we played on [against Bangladesh], have probably shifted as one of the tournament favourites,” Bracewell told NZPA. “They have greater flexibility across the board for these conditions in terms of their spin, their part-time bowlers and their up-front swingers. They have the tools available and we need to adapt to that very quickly.”Bracewell said the two-wicket defeat to Bangladesh – it was the first time New Zealand had been beaten by them – could be the “best thing or the worst thing to happen to us”. “It’s a wake-up call, getting used to the conditions and respecting opposition we’re going to come across in pool play,” he said. “These are teams you’re expected to beat, but if you’re complacent and not quite ready then on these sorts of wickets they can kick you in the butt.”

Kanbis A beat Nairobi Gymkhana by 61 runs to secure the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association Division One Twenty20 title at the Nairobi Gymkhana.Kanbis, who were put in to bat, were given a flying start by Arvind Halai, and his 64 was the platform for his side’s 162 for 9. Gymkhana were always off the pace and could only muster 101 for 7.Earlier in the day Nairobi Nookers, who were only formed in 2004, beat Nairobi Jafferys by six wickets to take the Second Division title. Batting first, Jaffreys scored 161 for 8, built on Charles Obuya’s 82, but Nookers overhauled the target with two overs to spare.

Ryan Watson is set to be named as Scotland’s new captain after Craig Wright resigned following the team’s disappointing performance in the World Cup.”I can’t see anyone other than Ryan Watson becoming captain,” Roddy Smith, the chief executive, old The Scotsman. “I think Ryan will be at the forefront of the selectors’ thoughts.”Watson stood in when Wright flew home after a family bereavement, leading the team against South Africa. Although Wright returned for the final match yesterday, he immediately stood down. “I felt it was the right time to give someone else an opportunity to make their mark,” he explained.

Mohammad Asif has been recalled to the Pakistan squad for the ODI series against Sri Lanka and has also been named vice-captain for the series. The 16-man squad contains only two new faces for the three-match series in Abu Dhabi, despite Pakistan’s poor showing in the Caribbean. Asif missed the World Cup due to an elbow injury.Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, told reporters in Lahore after an ad-hoc committee meeting that Asif was the best choice as vice-captain. Asif’s name, along with that of Shahid Afridi, had cropped up over the last few weeks though with such minimal experience still behind him, the move will surprise many. And with a possible face-off with WADA still in the offing over the doping crisis he was embroiled in last year, the appointment is bound to raise questions and eyebrows.There are few other surprises in the squad. Fawad Alam, the young Karachi allrounder, who had such an outstanding domestic season, has expectedly taken his place in the squad. And Najaf Shah, a left-arm fast medium bowler who plays for PIA and Rawalpindi, has also been called up after an impressive domestic season and some equally impressive performances in the trial matches played between the 39 probables that attended the recent camp at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.Shoaib Malik, who will be captaining Pakistan for the first time, stressed that the new players were the best available. “These are all deserving players and it is the best team available to us. The selection committee discussed the names with me and the decision was taken between us.”Salahuddin Ahmed, chairman of the selection committee, agreed, telling Cricinfo that this was the best available squad. “Sri Lanka are missing a few key players and so are we for a number of reasons but we have picked the best available squad. We are confident that this squad can do well.”Kamran Akmal, for the time being, retains his place as the leading wicketkeeper in the land. Without an understudy in sight, the move is seen as a vote of confidence in him by a new, empowered selection committee.Opener Salman Butt has also made a comeback into the squad, having been dropped after a disappointing tour to England last year. Talat Ali, recently appointed manager of the team for two years, will also be the acting coach for the three-match series.Pakistan are without Younis Khan and Shoaib Akhtar. Younis is currently turning out for Yorkshire, while Shoaib is not yet fully fit.Squad
Shoaib Malik (capt), Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Najaf Shah.

Daren Ganga, the West Indies captain, was pleased with his side’s on-field performance after the first day’s play in Manchester as West Indies showed signs of revival after their record loss in the second Test at Headingley.”I think it was a good day for us. We showed our competitiveness throughout the entire day,” said Ganga. “The first hour wasn’t too pleasant in terms of run scoring but we were able to hold things together and commit to what we set out to do and it was a whole team effort.”Ganga also welcomed the inclusion of the fast but wayward Fidel Edwards by saying that the “attack lacked a bit of penetration and more variety was something that you were going to see in this Test match. Fidel is that type of bowler, if he can come and knock the tail over it will be a good innings work for him.” The point was proven in the fiery spell to Paul Collingwood that probably caused a few bruises on his body.Ganga did not forget the effort put in by the other two fast bowlers, Corey Collymore and Jerome Taylor. “Collymore is our most senior bowler and those are the things expected from Corey. He did exactly what was required. All the guys supported him with Taylor picking up two wickets. These are the sorts of things we need to inculcate more in our team with everyone contributing and being switched on and putting a performance forward for the common good of the team.”When reminded of Steve Harmison’s record at Old Trafford and that the fragile West Indies batting line-up will be facing upto him soon, Ganga played it down by saying, “the guys are aware of his threat as a bowler but it’s very important to send the right message to the opposition, it’s a Test match. We are playing for our pride and playing to level the series so all the guys are geed up and it is very important for our competitiveness.”

South Africa take the field for the first time since their World Cupsemi-final drubbing, at the hands of Australia, in the laid-backsurroundings of Stormont on Sunday. On paper the match against adepleted Ireland side is the ideal way to ease into their shortone-day tour of the Emerald Isle, but they would be well advised nottake anything for granted.The two sides met twice in the Caribbean. The game that mattered – inthe Super Eights – comfortably went South Africa’s way with aseven-wicket victory but, a few weeks earlier, they’d been jolted intolife during their opening warm-up match in Trinidad as Ireland reducedthem to 91 for 8.South Africa recovered to win that match but for their first outing inmore than two months, with cool, overcast conditions, in unfamiliarsurroundings, they will have to be on their guard. One advantage forthem is that key players have tasted recent action. Andrew Hall, CharlLangeveldt and Andre Nel have been playing county cricket while MarkBoucher, AB de Villiers and Justin Kemp were involved in the Afro-AsiaCup.However, there is a potential problem on the horizon with Boucher andNel both suffering flu-like symptoms. They are on medication and aCricket South Africa spokesman said they were hopeful of playing, butit may lead Mickey Arthur into having to try a few of the five new (orrecalled) faces in the squad.If Boucher doesn’t recover Morne van Wyk would take the wicketkeepinggloves. His only previous one-day international was in the 2003Natwest Series final against England, at Lord’s, when South Africawere thrashed by seven wickets. The absence of Nel wouldn’t be felttoo strongly, as the squad is packed with seam options, and a possibledebut is on the cards for allrounder Vernon Philander along with aone-day return for Dale Steyn following his outstanding form forWarwickshire.The other interesting bowling option for the South Africans toconsider is the offspin of Thandi Tshabalala. Although conditions atStormont wouldn’t initially cry out in favour of the spinners, PiyushChawla was very effective against Ireland. For teams brought up on adiet of medium pace seam and swing having a slow-bowling optionprovides a different test.Ireland will want to put in an improved display after their nine-wicket defeat against India. Trent Johnston thought his side had put a decent total on the board but were let down by some loose bowling. The South African batting order is going to be another stiff challenge for his young attack.After their final training session the South Africans opted not tocome down to the Civil Service Ground and give their opponents theonce over. Instead, they headed off to watch the Springboks take onthe All Blacks in the Tri-Nations rugby. The cricket team’s task onSunday should be much easier.South Africa (from) Jacques Kallis (capt), Mark Boucher, AB deVilliers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp, CharlLangeveldt, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn,Thandi Tshabalala, Morne van WykIreland (from) Trent Johnston (capt), Kenny Carroll, Alex Cusack, Thinus Fourie, Dominick Joyce, Gary Kidd, Kyle McCallan, Kevin O’ Brien, Niall O’ Brien, William Porterfield, Roger Whelan, Andrew White,Gary Wilson

India’s cricketers enjoyed a “rest” day today, warming down after theirsecond tour game at Chelmsford, but one or two minds might have just beenworking overtime. Rahul Dravid and Co. would have wished for the twopractice games to provide a few answers; instead there seem to be morequestions on hand with three days to go until the first Test at Lord’s.Wasim Jaffer or Gautam Gambhir? VVS Laxman or Yuvraj Singh? Mahendra Singh Dhoni aswicketkeeper? The first two aren’t new instances – Jaffer is prone to a string of failures while Laxman’s spot is never certain. But what of Dhoni? In Bangladesh he kept his Test spot thanks toa Man-of-the-Series performance in the preceding one-dayers, but he’s donelittle of note to be sure of a place here. One can point to his 76 atChelmsford, or even his buccaneering 139 not out against Africa XI atChennai, but the conditions were nowhere near as demanding as they will be atLord’s.What’s more worrying is Dhoni’s decline behind the stumps. He was never a naturalwicketkeeper, starting off as a football goalie, and it was mainly thanksto his persistence that he improved in that department. There was a periodearly in his career when he gave up batting for one whole year just to getbetter with the gloves. He showed considerable improvement last season butthe fumbles have reappeared recently. He has struggled so far in the tour games, often parrying the ball rather than waiting for it, and his grassedchances off Andy Hodd and Robin Martin-Jenkins at Hove and Stuart Broad atChelmsford, all straightforward ones at international level, woulddefinitely get the team management thinking.Making his job harder is Dinesh Karthik’s presence in the team as aspecialist batsman. Karthik is the more agile wicketkeeper and is betterstanding up to Anil Kumble’s bouncy offerings. There will surely be a temptation to ask him to keep as well as bat. It would no doubt add to his burden – squatting all daybefore opening the batting can’t be easy – but it would also allow theteam a chance to play the extra batsman in Yuvraj.India’s batting is awesome on paper but, as was shown at Chelmsford, it justtakes a persistent bowling attack to open up the cracks. The top order is weak,the middle is inconsistent and the tail is mostly redundant. Lord’s isusually good to the batsmen and India’s batting galacticos, as theGuardian newspaper called them, will need to stand up. If they needsome expert advice about batting on the ground they just need to lookaround the dressing room and spot a man who managed three hundreds on thetrot here.For Dilip Vengsarkar, the current chairman of selectors, Lord’s, where he cracked centuries in 1979, 1982 and 1986, was his backyard. He downplayed the achievement, when Cricinfo asked him about it, butexplained why the ground was special.”Every player has his favourite grounds. I’ve got four hundreds at the Feroz Shah Kotla but nobody remembers that. And they were against better teams – three againstWest Indies and one against Asif Iqbal’s Pakistan. Everybody only talksabout the three hundred at Lord’s. Of course it was a great feeling. It’sspecial playing at Lord’s. Walking through the long room you have a heavyfeeling in the heart. You see the honours board, the pictures on the wall,the packed atmosphere. It’s electrifying. But once you hit the grass, it’sjust another ground.”Did he have to make any special adjustment to counter the famous Lord’sslope? “Too much is made of the slope at Lord’s,” he said nonchalantly. “Every ground has some slope – go to Leeds you have a slope,at Chelmsford there’s also a slope. You need to adjust to different conditions and the slope is just one part of it. It’s not as tough to adjust as it’s made out to be.”But which of the three hundreds will he most cherish? “I think the centuryin 1986 was my best. We won at Lord’s for the first time and went on towin the series. The bowlers won the game for us – Chetan Sharma bowledsuperbly, Kapil Dev was equally good, Maninder Singh too. To finish on thewinning side after making your third successive hundred was verysatisfying.”India had never won a Lord’s Test before 1986, they’ve yet to win onesince. As much as he’s proud of being part of that side, Vengsarkar willhope that India double that victory tally in the coming days.

Scorecard

India A cruised to a nine-wicket win against Zimbabwe Select on thefinal day of the opening four-day match at Harare Sports Club. Zimbabwe were dismissed for 216 in the second innings, leaving India with a target of 65, which they rattled off for the loss of just one wicket.The equation was simple at the start of the day: Zimbabwe needed to bat out the entire day to force a draw. Resuming on 15 for 1, Zimbabwe lost Hamilton Masakadza early but rallied through a 108-run partnership between Vusi Sibanda (69) and Tatenda Taibu (40) before Piyush Chawla got into the act.He grabbed four wickets that included Sibanda, Taibu, and Elton Chigumbura (30) to propel India towards victory. Irfan Pathan, who opened in the second innings, hit a breezy 30-ball 39 to take India home.”We started very well in the morning with Sibanda and Taibu getting quick runs but everything crumbled once Taibu fell,” Zimbabwe Cricket spokesman Blessing Maulgue told VOA. “The experienced guys need to pull up the socks. Only Taibu performed in the first innings. The guys like Masakadza, Sibanda and Chigumbura need to perform consistently and our batsman have to give something for our bowlers to defend.”The two sides will meet in the second and final four-day game at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo starting on Tuesday. .

Geoff Lawson, Pakistan’s new coach, said he would have to instill a “killer’s instinct” in his new team if it was to reach the top in world cricket.Lawson was speaking after arriving in the country on Monday night to take up his post and prepare for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa next month. “Any side that wants to be world’s best needs aggression, the killer’s instinct and must play to its strength and that’s what I would be looking at,” Lawson told a press conference.Lawson said he was excited after having his first interaction with the players on Tuesday morning and then overseeing a training session in the evening. “Let me say I am thrilled and honoured to be here and meeting with the players,” he said. “The enthusiasm among the players is outstanding and they are eager to do well.”Pakistan started a week-long training session before leaving for Kenya, where they feature in a tune-up Twenty20 event involving the hosts, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan face Scotland in their first World Championship match at Durban on September 12 before taking on India at the same venue two days later.Lawson said four Pakistani players – the former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Imran Farhat and Abdul Razzaq – joining the Indian Cricket League would not have a direct affect on the rest of the squad. But he still hoped Yousuf would have a change of mind.”I feel there would be no direct reflection of the players joining the league because players make their decisions but I would certainly hope Yousuf has a change of mind,” he said. “Yousuf is a fine player and he is not only worth it for his runs but also for his influence on the younger players.” Yousuf amassed 1788 Test runs in 2006, a world record for a calendar year.Lawson ruled out players’ attitude, especially that of the mercurial Shoaib Akhtar, upsetting his planning. “Coaches have problems with the attitude of the players and this goes back to 700BC and it’s nothing new,” Lawson, who took 180 wickets in 46 Tests for Australia, said. “I don’t see Akhtar as a problem. I am a fast bowler first so I will have to deal with that.”Lawson shrugged off comparisons with his former team-mate Greg Chappell, who had a tough time as the India coach. “I don’t agree Greg Chappell had a bitter experience; he spoke positively about the Indian players and the way India have played in England shows he did a good job.”With Lawson from Australia was Pakistan’s new trainer David Dwyer. “Dwyer just finished work with the rugby team in Australia and it would be good to have the rugby attitude and with it comes the killer’s instinct.”

Scorecard
Riding on a 247-run opening partnership between debutant Ajinkya Rahane and Sahil Kukreja, Mumbai ended the first day of their Nissar Trophy match against Karachi Urban well-placed at 325 for 3.Hasan Raza, Karachi’s captain, won the toss on a warm morning and decided to put the opposition in to avail the moisture present underneath the surface. A few play-and-misses by the Mumbai batsmen was the best Karachi’s opening bowlers, Anwar Ali and Malik Aftab, could deliver as Rahane and Kukreja feasted on a flat track.Anwar, Pakistan’s hero from the Under-19 World Cup, finally got the breakthrough as Kukreja edged a rising delivery behind the stumps to Amin-ur-Rehman after smashing 16 fours in his 110. Rahane soon followed his opening partner back in the pavilion as he was picked up byUzair-ul-Haq in a similar fashion. Rahane’s 143 took 207 deliveries and was compiled with the help of 28 fours.Even though two wickets in the space of three overs drafted the new batsmen into defensive mode, Karachi failed to take advantage of it. Opting to rest his frontline bowlers after they had toiled hard under the sun, Raza refused to take the new ball after 80 overs as Karachi couldonly pick up one further wicket. Vinayak Mane, Mumbai’s captain, was run out by a direct-hit by Khurram Manzoor from the covers. Hiken Shah and Prashant Naik were the two unbeaten batsmen at close on 38 and six respectively as Raza rued his decision to bowl first after winning the toss.”We though there was sufficient moisture on the surface to trouble the batsmen early on and hence the decision to bowl first,” Raza told . “However, we did not bowl as well as we should and not only did the moisture disappear very quickly, but the batsmen also appliedthemselves to such an extent that it became really difficult to dismiss them.”Tomorrow looks another long day for the home team as Mumbai will be looking to take full advantage of a wonderful day one. Hasan, however, will be handing over the new ball to his fast bowlers right from start of play and hoping to take early wickets.”We must strike with the new ball tomorrow, hope the batsmen make mistakes and try and get a bat in sometime during the afternoon,” Raza said.The selection of the touring Mumbai side was severely hampered by pull-outs and non-availabilities and thus gave first-class debuts not only to Rahane and Naik, but also to Iqbal Abdulla, Vikrant Yeligati and Omkar Gurav.