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The dust may barely have settled on the ECB’s new TV rights contract with Sky Sports, but already it seems they are trying to encourage the BBC to bid for the next cricket deal, which would begin in 2010. The news came to light through a leak to , which said that David Collier, the new ECB chief executive, held talks with Peter Salmon, the BBC director of sport on Tuesday.The leak came from the Save Cricket group, which has been set up by Norton Cricket Club from Teesside to campaign against the new deal. The group are planning to wear black armbands during Test matches this summer to protest at the ECB’s deal to give live coverage of all home Tests to Sky from 2006.Rhys Jenkins, the organiser of Save Cricket told : “The ECB are starting to realise just how annoyed people are and they’re feeling guilty about their deal with Sky. It’s obvious that they’re worried about their exclusive deal with satellite television. They’re already looking at the next deal and trying to get the BBC interested.” However, the ECB said that the meeting between Collier and Salmon was “routine” while the BBC failed to comment, but it is believed that it is too early for them to be making decisions for as far ahead as 2010.This summer’s Ashes series will be Channel 4’s last cricket – they have held the rights to home Test matches, although one has been shown live on Sky each summer, and later rounds of the C&G Trophy since 1999, when they beat off the BBC. The only cricket on terrestrial TV will be Channel 5’s 45-minute highlights package. Four’s coverage, which introduced the viewers to gadgetry like Hawkeye and the Snickometer, has won a number of awards but began to attract some criticism when it started to shunt around the timing of their highlights programme – often not shown until the early hours of the following morning. Frequent breaks for horse racing, especially over weekends, was another issue and they brought the start time of Tests forward to 10.30 so that coverage did not extend too far into the early-evening peak viewing hours.But the fear is, now that the ECB have put all their eggs in one basket (admittedly a very lucrative one) there will be very little competition from other broadcasters when the contracts are next up for renewal. The new deal is worth £220million, with money promised for grassroots funding, but next time around, without rival broadcasters bidding, Sky could get a cut price deal that would leave the game dangerously short of funding.The ECB told Cricinfo that it has regular meetings with all its broadcasting partners and would soon be talking with Channel 4 and Sky but maybe the ECB are already starting to sweat?

Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, has insisted that Michael Vaughan’s fateis in his own hands as he continues to recuperate after the knee injuryhe suffered while batting at Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore last week. Vaughan,who missed England’s defeat in the first Test at Multan, was put throughhis paces in the nets at Faisalabad today, leaving Fletcher trusting inhis captain’s professionalism.”If he wants to play he can play,” Fletcher told reporters at the teamhotel in Faisalabad. “We can’t be absolutely confident, because he’s had thisknee problem before, but he’s got to live with it. He gave himself a goodtest today which was good to see, but we’ll be keen to monitor it over thenext couple of days.”Much as England would want their captain to return to shore up a brittlemiddle-order, the news that Marcus Trescothick will be staying with thetour, and not returning home to attend to a family incident, couldpersuade the England thinktank to take a more prudent approach.Trescothick’s father-in-law fell off a ladder and sustained serious headinjuries earlier this week, but his condition is now said to be stable.”From our point of view, Marcus is a world-class player who averages over40 and is batting as well as he ever has, so it’s great news he’s stayingon,” said Fletcher. “Having lost Simon Jones [before the tour began], tomiss another quality player would have been a big problem.”If there were any concerns that Trescothick would not be able to focus onthe job at hand, then Fletcher brushed them aside. “He got the news whileplaying [in the first Test], and it didn’t seem to affect him. It was moreserious at that time and it would have been a shock to him. But he wentout, captained the side very well, kept the energy levels up, and it neverlooked a problem. Hopefully he can adjust to that when this Test starts.”England could do without such speculation about two of their key players,as they look to regroup after their shock defeat in the first Test.Fletcher refused to speculate on the balance of the side until he had hada proper look at the wicket – which at present is covered in grassclippings to prevent any cracks appearing too soon – but he commended hissquad’s intensity during their first practice session since the Multandefeat.As to that disastrous final morning, in which England lost their last ninewickets for 111, Fletcher conceded: “We probably needed a little morepatience, because the opposition were allowed to bowl well for a period oftime. But it’s a fine line. We don’t want to become too patient and getbogged down, because our players are instinctive players to some degree.”But you’ve got to be a little careful,” Fletcher added. “The thing aboutTest cricket is that you can play well for four days then get into troublein just one hour. You’ve got to make sure you focus for every session offive days. But they’ve all done it before, and all our players work fortheir runs. It’s just a matter of reading the situation and playing thatsituation.”Of England’s middle-order, Kevin Pietersen – with a highest score of 19 insix innings on tour – is the man under the most scrutiny, but Fletcherbacked him to come good soon enough. “You could say he was a bit of aworry before the Oval Test, but then he got a big hundred. It’s only beenone Test. We expect him to get runs in this Test match, because he’s thetype of player who can hit a rich run of form.”As to whether England could bounce back with victory in their next Test,as they have done in every one of their four previous Test defeats of theVaughan era, Fletcher was guarded. “I’m confident but that’s noguarantee,” he said. “We’ve started well and finished badly, we’ve startedbadly and finished well, we’ve started well and finished well, and we’vestarted badly and finished badly. We’ve been right through them all, sofrom our point of view we’ve done it before, and we hope we’ll do itagain.”

Danish Kaneria, the Pakistan legspinner, has said that he will target Rahul Dravid in the upcoming India tour. Kaneria, who will be the frontline spinner, reckoned Dravid to be the greatest threat and disclosed his plans to unleash a secret delivery during the series.”I respect Dravid a lot. He is a great player and my favourite too,” Kaneria told the BBC Hindi website. “I don’t think any other Indian batsman will be difficult to bowl at. He has got the class and he would be the main wicket for me. He is truly the Wall and if I get him it will be an achievement for me”Kaneria also said that the Indian tour would be a huge challenge and disclosed his plans to unveil a secret weapon to counter the Indian batsmen who are reputed to be masters of countering spin bowling. “I have developed a secret delivery that I intend to use during the series against India,” Kaneria told , a Pakistan based daily. “I have been successful in honing that delivery and will use in the matches against India. I have set a target of 20 to 25 wickets in the series because the tracks in India have always been spin friendly.”Kaneria along with the Arshad Khan, the offspinner who was recalled to the Test side after five years, will boost the thin bowling line-up. He was confident of performing better in India than in the recent Australian tour, where he manfully led the attack with 15 wickets in three Tests. “We have a good spin attack now,” he added. “I was the only spinner on the Australian tour and there was no-one to support me. Now my workload will come down as I will have support from Arshad. As a legspinner I will attack and as an offspinner Arshad can help contain the batsmen.”

Did an error by the third umpire cost Pakistan the one-day international at Karachi? The News, a Pakistan daily, reports that Moin Khan, and not Naved-ul-Hasan, should have taken strike to the last ball of the penultimate over of the match. The confusion arose after Mohammad Kaif took a magnificent catch in the deep to dismiss Shoaib Malik, at which stage Pakistan required ten runs in seven balls.Quoting a source, the daily says that Simon Taufel, one of the on-field umpires, went by the instruction of Asad Rauf, the third umpire, and allowed Hasan to take strike. “Taufel went by what the third umpire had to say, thinking Moin had not crossed over when Kaif took the catch. But the problem was that Asad Rauf miscalculated the number of balls in that over and thought that the over was complete. But since Moin had crossed over he told Taufel that not Moin but Rana Naveed [ul-Hasan] should take strike,” the paper quoted the source as saying. “Rauf only realised his mistake when he saw Zaheer Khan continuing with his over, but made no attempt to convey to Taufel that he had made a mistake.” Hasan took a single off that ball which meant that he kept strike for the final over.The daily also states that though the Pakistan management had made no formal complaint, Rauf had been pulled up by Ranjan Madugalle, the match referee, for the error.* * *Andy Atkinson, the curator in charge of the pitches for the series, has hit out at the charge that the track for the first ODI was loaded in favour of the batsman. In a report in The Indian Express, Atkinson called the wicket “very fair” and said it was a typical one-day pitch. “For the past decade the wickets in one-day cricket are tailormade to suit batsmen. This is because people come to watch fours and sixes, and nothing else. Pitches are supposed to be like this.”However, Atkinson did promise that the wickets for the Tests would be far more bowler-friendly. “You want a contest, wait till the Tests. It is more of a connoisseur’s delight and the bowlers will have a good time then.”* * *Wasim Bari, Pakistan’s chief selector, has denied that there were any differences between the selectors and Inzamam-ul-Haq over the composition of Pakistan’s team for the first ODI at Karachi. According to The News, Bari made it clear that the selectors had given Inzamam full powers to select the team he wanted.”What we wanted to do was give Inzamam a boost before the first match of the series,” Bari told the daily. “We left it to him to pick the playing eleven. He was confident in going along with five bowlers and we said okay, it is your call. And this move to give him confidence worked and it showed in the way he batted in the match.”Earlier reports in the media had suggested the selectors were disappointed that only five bowlers were picked in the side, and that Shahid Afridi had been omitted. Bari did make it clear, though, that Pakistan would go in with six bowlers for the second match, at Rawalpindi.* * *After the exemplary behaviour of the spectators in Karachi, all eyes are now on the Rawalpindi fans. Press Trust of India reports that the district government of Rawalpindi has brought out an eight-point appeal to the crowd, urging them to “exercise maximum restraint and show the highest norms of hospitality and discipline” during the second ODI. The appeal also requests the fans not to bring in “glass bottles, mobile phones and other metallic substances into the enclosure for your own safety and for that of the players”.

Zorol Barthley, chief cricket operations officer of the WICB, has announced he will quit his role at the end of February next year.Barthley’s resignation is one of many to have hit the board in the past year and Dr Roland Toppin, who was named its new chief executive in November, will now have a clean slate with which to begin his tenure. So far this year, the resignations have included Roger Brathwaite, the chief executive; Darren Millien, the chief marketing executive; Dr. Michael Seepersaud, the chief cricket development officer and Bryce Cavanagh, the Australia-born strength and conditioning coach.Toppin takes up his new role in time for the World Cup which is being held in the Caribbean in March and April next year.

Donald Bradman’s status as the Superman of Australian batsmanship lives on, with two of The Don’s most gargantuan knocks voted among the three greatest innings ever played by Australian cricketers.The historic poll, published in the latest edition of magazine, has been conducted among a selection panel of 30 cricket experts and former Australian Test players, representing every decade since the 1940s.Bradman’s 254 against England at Lord’s in 1930 – which he himself considered his most technically impeccable innings – was voted No. 1. In second place comes his team-mate Stan McCabe’s daring 232 at Trent Bridge in 1938, when McCabe farmed the strike and slaughtered the English bowling when all seemed lost. Third is Bradman’s 334 – including 309 in a single day – at Headingley, also made in his golden English summer of 1930.Of his innings voted the greatest ever, his 254 at Lord’s, Bradman wrote in his autobiography : “Practically without exception every ball went where it was intended.”Two innings from the modern era round up the top five. Dean Jones’s 210 in the tied Test at Chennai in 1986-87, when he batted for more than eight hours in exhausting heat and ultimately lost control of his bodily functions, was voted the fourth-greatest Australian innings. In fifth position comes Kim Hughes’s epic 100 not out against West Indies in the Boxing Day Test of 1981-82. The next highest score that day was 21.”The list encapsulates the most precious, tantalising, uniquely red-blooded traits of Australian batsmanship,” said Christian Ryan, the editor of . “Our voters were dazzled by the huge numbers and helter-skelter scoring rates of Don Bradman and Matthew Hayden. They were struck by the bravery under fire of Stan McCabe, Kim Hughes and Bill Lawry. And they were charmed by the pristine artistry of Mark Waugh, Greg Chappell and Victor Trumper.”Of the current Australian XI, Adam Gilchrist’s matchwinning 149 not out against Pakistan in Hobart four years ago is ranked the sixth-best Australian innings in history. At No. 7 is Steve Waugh’s 200 at Kingston in 1994-95, when Australia finally wrested the Frank Worrell Trophy off West Indies. Matthew Hayden’s world-record 380, accumulated against Zimbabwe at the start of this summer, is rated 10th best.Neil Harvey, with six innings in the top 50, figures more prominently than any other Australian batsman. Bradman and Steve Waugh (four each) are next best, followed by Ian Chappell and Doug Walters (three). A second McCabe innings – his unbeaten 187 in the opening Bodyline Test of 1932-33 – finished in eighth position.The poll is the largest of its kind undertaken in Australian cricket-publishing history. The 30-man selection panel includes former Test stars Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson, Ian Chappell, Mark Taylor, Ian Craig, Ian Healy, Geoff Lawson, Colin McDonald, Ashley Mallett, Rick McCosker and Sam Loxton.The latest edition of commemorates the 50 greatest innings with 50 classic essays by the leading cricket writers from Australia and the world.

Both Michael Vaughan and Herschelle Gibbs moved up one place in the latest PriceWaterhouseCoopers Test ratings after scoring hundreds at Edgbaston, but the biggest gainer was Graeme Smith. His 277 and 85 in the Test ensured that he moved up a whopping 25 places, to No. 19. Vaughan and Gibbs swapped places with Sachin Tendulkar – who dropped to third spot – and Rahul Dravid, who is now ranked 10th.Darren Lehmann’s century against Bangladesh in the Test at Cairns moved him up 11 places to No. 47, while Steve Waugh climbed two spots to No 13. Habibul Bashar improved his rating to 575 points (No. 36) – the highest ever by a Bangladesh batsman.

Among the bowlers, Stuart MacGill climbed an impressive nine places to No. 7 after his haul of ten wickets against Bangladesh. However, Glenn McGrath’s lacklustre performance – he finished with 1 for 79 – ensured that he dropped a place to third spot. It also allowed meant Shaun Pollock stayed top of the rankings, despite taking only two wickets at Edgbaston. Meanwhile, Darren Gough, who played his first Test in nearly two years, made a reappearance in the top 20, at No. 19.

Click here for full PwC ratings

“My job is to perform well, and despite that if they don’t pick you forinternational cricket I don’t know what you can do?” So says MushtaqAhmed, once an automatic selection for Pakistan, now the leading bowlerin this year’s English County Championship and heading fast for 100wickets.”Spin bowlers get better with age,” he continues, “and the best age isin your thirties.” That, of course, is Mushtaq’s age now, and he canhave had few better seasons than with Sussex, now surprise leaders inthe Championship.Whether or not Mushtaq is bowling the best of his career is difficult tojudge unless he gets back into the Pakistan team, and the noises fromthe selectors suggest that his chances are slim. They are backing youth,which means Danish Kaneria, the man who replaced Mushtaq in the middleof England’s last tour of Pakistan.But does Mushtaq have a case? There was a time, in the mid-1990s, whenhe vied with Shane Warne for the title of world’s best leggie, but Warnecontinued to rise while Mushtaq plummeted. His first problem came withthe arrival of Saqlain Mushtaq, a spinner who could take wickets andcheck the run rate. Saqlain is an ideal one-day bowler, and withPakistan’s emphasis on the shorter game, Mushtaq found himself squeezedout. Saqlain’s emergence coincided nicely with Pakistan’s match-fixingscandals, during which Mushtaq was accused and out of favour. Hisappearances became confined to when Pakistan played two spinners,although he continued to spin the ball prodigiously, with greatvariation. Mushtaq remained a threat, but the wickets dried up. Perhapshe was trying too hard.For the last two seasons he has been the leading wicket-taker inPakistan’s domestic cricket – but you wouldn’t know it. News ofPakistan’s domestic cricket travels little beyond the country’s ownborders … and not that much within them. But this season’s successwith Sussex has brought Mushtaq’s predicament to prominence.He is not alone. Saqlain too has lost his place; both of them sacrificedat the altar of youth. Nonetheless, while Pakistan’s officials do talkof Saqlain’s return, Mushtaq’s plight usually gets short shrift. Thecurrent axis of power – Rashid Latif (captain), Javed Miandad (coach)and Aamir Sohail (chairman of selectors) – wants a clean break from thepast, and will probably persevere with youngsters like Kaneria.Surprisingly Mushtaq had few favours from his friend Waqar Younis,during whose captaincy he played only once for Pakistan. He denies anybitterness towards Waqar, but clearly he is not impressed by histreatment. “When a man tries to keep his job he has to make a lot ofcompromises,” says Mushtaq. “I took a lot of wickets at the start of the2001 tour but I was dropped. When people get into the business ofsurvival, especially the leader, the team cannot get behind him. Youonly have to see what happened in the World Cup. Pakistan lost badly butthe team was not so bad.”There is too much liking and disliking in the selection for thePakistan team. Danish Kaneria has been tried inconsistently. They havedropped Saqlain too. They should give an explanation when people withgood records lose their place.”Mushtaq is a family man and, for the last two years, a devout Muslim whoprays five times a day. He has no expectations of Waqar Younis or RashidLatif or the Pakistan selectors. He has left his fate in the hands ofGod, and is determined to perform his best for Sussex and take them totheir first Championship title.”Allah has given me a lot of insight and blessing. We shouldn’t runafter material things. There are many millionaires who are not happywith life. And Allah never closes the door on people. I played well in acouple of matches for Surrey last season, and Sussex signed me. I have aone-year contract but I hope that will be increased and I hope to takeas many wickets as possible.”And what remains unsaid is that he wants to win his Test place back.Kamran Abbasi, born in Lahore but raised in Rotherham, is deputy editor of the British Medical Journal

DV Subba Rao, the man who conducted the inquiry set up to investigate the bribery scandal, has said in his report that there is prima facie evidence against Abhijit Kale to justify a deeper probe. A key element in his findings were the repeated phone calls made by Kale to the selectors concerned, Kiran More and Pranab Roy.A copy of Subba Rao’s report was presented by the BCCI counsel during the Mumbai High Court hearings regarding Kale’s plea to revoke his suspension. The report revealed More’s statement that Kale made phone calls to him in June and July, offering him Rs 10 lakhs (approximately US$21,900 ) for a place in the Indian side. Kale’s counsel, Janak Dwarkadas and Vineet Naik, countered this by claiming that Kale had merely wanted to apprise the selectors that “his shoulder injury had healed and he was fit to be included” in the team.Kale had allegedly also called Roy five times and had once met him at an airport in Mumbai to offer him the same amount of money. Roy apparently reprimanded Kale for making this “nuisance offer.”More also said that Kale’s mother had come to his house in Vadodara with an offer. He said, “Mrs Kale also visited my Baroda [the previous name of Vadodara] house in my absence and spoke to my wife.”More disregarded the visit, he said to Subba Rao, because he thought it to be the anxiety of a mother, and said that he had seen such obsessive behaviour in the relatives of other cricketers as well.Subba Rao recommended to the BCCI that they appoint another committee to “go into much more depth” in the matter. “A player persistenly phoning selectors is itself not proper,” he said, “and phoning for selection is worse. Kale’s mother visiting More’s Baroda residence further points the needle of suspicion against him.”To Kale’s claim that his mother had only gone to Vadodara to hand over his fitness certificate, Subba Rao observed that the journey from Thane – where she resides – to Vadodara is at least seven hours. “If it was only to give the letter certainly that could have been sent by post or fax.” Kale’s reply to this was that he could not get the fax number, which is why his mother made the trip.

THE Western Australian Cricket Association today announced that Western Power has elected not to exercise its option to continue as Major Sponsor of the Western Warriors.Western Power will reduce its substantial contribution to Western Australian cricket, but would like to continue its support for regional development.Western Power has been Major Sponsor of the Warriors for the past five years.In announcing the conclusion of a successful partnership, WACA Chief Executive Mrs Kath White, praised Western Power’s contribution to Western Australian cricket."We’re pleased that we will still be partners with Western Power in our regional cricket program," Mrs White said."We fully understand Western Power’s position in not being able to continue with their sponsorship of the Western Warriors."Mrs White said that, negotiations with a comparable Warriors Major Sponsor, is now a priority for WACA management."The Western Warriors are a highly respected team on the national sporting scene with high profile players leading their appeal, such as Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn," Mrs White said."Our Western Warriors epitomise the spirit of Western Australia as a State and they are always prominent performers in the Pura Cup and ING Cup competitions."Western Power General Manager Retail John Lillywhite said Western Power would continue its strong relationship with the WACA."Although no longer the sole sponsor of the Western Warriors, Western Power has realigned its level of support for WA cricket, to focus solely on the WACA’s regional junior program," said Mr Lillywhite."We would like to increase our backing for this very successful WACA program which we joined seven years ago. It has a strong rural and youth focus and its achievements are impressive."Western Power made the decision after reviewing its community partnership program in light of changes in the competitive marketplace.”We found that backing the high profile Western Warriors did not fit with our strategies as we repositioned in the competitive market.”Western Power looks forward to continuing to work with the WACA to develop its regional junior program.”We have no doubt that the WACA and the Western Warriors will go from strength to strength.”