All posts by csb10.top

Cricket Australia has taken a major step towards hosting Test matches at night after being assured that it is possible to develop suitable balls that will replicate the performance of the traditional red balls. Australia have been keen on the idea of day-night Tests for some time, although the major sticking point was finding a ball that could be used for 80 overs and retain its characteristics and visibility under lights.In July, Cricket Australia asked Australia’s national government body for scientific research, the CSIRO, to discover whether such a ball could be developed. The CSIRO has now come up with an assurance that it can be done.”The CSIRO has told us it is absolutely possible to deliver a ball that replicates, at all times, the performance of the red ball,” Peter Young, Cricket Australia’s spokesman, told the . “They’re developing a system where cricket balls can be tested – a cricketing version of the Australian Standards Association – so we know for sure these balls are Test standard.”During the 1990s Australia trialled day-night Sheffield Shield matches but could not settle on what colour ball was most suitable. Yellow balls were used for two seasons before being replaced by orange ones, but batsmen complained both types were hard to see, scuffed too easily and behaved differently to the traditional red balls.The white balls used in one-day international cricket also behave in a slightly different manner to red balls and, in any case, would be unsuitable for matches where the players wear white. Pink balls have been tested in England and may yet be the most feasible option.Whatever the CSIRO’s outcome, Cricket Australia remains committed to pursuing night Test matches. The ICC and the other Test nations would need to approve such a move but Cricket Australia is confident that fans would prefer to watch matches with an afternoon start time.”Whatever sport you look at – cricket in the shorter forms of the game, football in any of its forms, tennis, even basketball and baseball in the northern hemisphere – the world is saying: ‘We want to watch these events at night’,” Young said. “Strategically, we need to take note of that.”This meeting with the CSIRO has been a significant first step. Some people would obviously be disappointed if we went down this path, certainly the absolute purists. But there were similar reservations when limited-overs cricket first came along.”

Jhulan Goswami, India’s new women’s captain, has said she will take inspiration from the performance of Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the team’s tour of Australia, her first assignment in charge. Dhoni, who took over as India’s limited-overs captain last year, led the men’s team to victory in the CB Series in Australia earlier this year.”Now that I have a new job on my hands, I am looking up to Dhoni, particularly for our coming tour of Australia,” Goswami told the . Goswami, a fast bowler, said she and her team-mates would try to adopt a similar approach to that of the men’s team. “Dhoni is a special lesson for me on the captaincy front. I am the captain now.”My first job is to understand the manner and positive approach with which Dhoni led the Indian team in Australia. And I will also ask my team members to follow the same example. I think it will do us a world of good on our tour to Australia.”The Australia trip, starting October 22, features five ODIs and one Twenty20 international, and Goswami said it will be the ideal build-up for the World Cup in February 2008, also in Australia. “This Australia tour is very crucial as preparation for next year’s World Cup. I have been to Australia before, but this trip will act as good preparation for everyone since it is this team, more or less, that will play in the World Cup there next year.” India will play at two of the six venues for the World Cup, which will be staged in New South Wales.India’s disappointing performance in England, where they lost 4-0 in the ODIs, led to the sacking of Mithali Raj as captain. Goswami, though, felt their relationship won’t be affected. “I spoke to Mithali after she was removed from captaincy. I explained it’s a decision taken by the selectors. Mithali and I are great friends and it will continue to be that way.”Australia beat India in the final of the 2005 World Cup in South Africa. India last toured the country in 2006, losing the one-off Test and all three ODIs. But Goswami felt India were better prepared this time. “There are seniors like Anjum Chopra, Mithali Raj, Rumeli Dhar and young talents like Priyanka Roy, Thirush Kamini and others. It’s a nice blend of experience and youth. I am confident that if we stay positive we will surely be in a commanding position this time.”The 15-member squad will take part in a preparatory camp from October 13 in Mumbai, before leaving for Australia on October 18 or 19.

Muttiah Muralitharan has said he is yet to sign a contract to play for Bengal in the 2008-09 Indian domestic season and that his priority will be to represent Sri Lanka. He said he was still unsure about his availability though the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) had got clearances from Sri Lanka Cricket and the BCCI.The player’s manager had also earlier confirmed to Cricinfo that he would be available to play about four matches for Bengal, subject to no clashes with international commitments.”The Lankan board chief [executive], Duleep Mendis, has sent across a fax to us, mentioning that Muralitharan will be available for Bengal in the upcoming first-class engagements,” Jagmohan Dalmiya, the CAB president, said earlier. However, the CAB were unsure which games Murali would play.Murali said he was eagerly awaiting the home series against Zimbabwe, comprising two Tests and three ODIs. “I am looking forward to Zimbabwe’s tour beginning November 7. Then, in January we play in Bangladesh, so it remains to be seen whether I am at all available for Bengal,” Muralitharan told .With the Ranji Trophy beginning on November 3, and Bengal playing away to Assam in their opener, chances are slim that Muralitharan may play a crucial role in the team’s bid to perform well in the Ranji Trophy Plate League, which will help them earn promotion to the Super League next season.Muralitharan said he was also contracted with the IPL franchise, Chennai Super Kings, for three years and was committed to them as well. Having finished as runners-up in the inaugural season of the league, he will also represent the Super Kings in the Champions Twenty20 League to be held from December 3-10.The group phase of the Plate League is scheduled from November 3-December 4 with Bengal playing five games before the knock-out stages.

The row between the West Indies Cricket Board and its sponsors, Digicel, took another twist on Thursday with a proposal from the company to settle its dispute with the board.In August, Digicel filed an injunction in the High Court in London seeking to have the WICB withdraw all approval for the Stanford Super Series which, it claimed, encroached its “exclusive sponsorship rights”. The move came in the light of rumours that Stanford was close to signing Cable and Wireless (Digicel’s competitor and a former sponsor of the West Indies team) as a sponsor for the series.The court put the matter to arbitration, and the results of this are due in October. However, in a statement sent to Cricinfo, Digicel said it proposed a “compromise solution will involve the waiver of a considerable number of legal and commercial rights owned by Digicel by virtue of its sole and exclusive sponsorship agreement with the WICB”.The conditions of the offer are that the Stanford side in the 20/20 for 20 match against England on November 1 wear official West Indies kit with Digicel branding; that no telecommunications company be involved in the event; and that Digicel’s costs be paid for by the board.While this might appear one-sided, Digicel claims that in return it will be “foregoing a large number of valuable legal rights and entitlements including broadcast rights, exclusively branded pitch mats, sight screens, perimeter boards, promotional opportunities, advertising, content rights and various other avenues for commercial use that it currently owns by virtue of its sole and exclusive sponsorship agreement with the WICB”.The statement concludes: “Digicel would call upon both the WICB and Stanford to engage constructively on this matter and to put cricket in the West Indies first. Digicel’s compromise solution is a very credible alternative and provides something for every party concerned.”Insiders believe that the WICB might have little option but to agree to the bulk of the demands, because without the board’s backing, the series could be deemed unofficial which, given the precedent set with the ICL in India, would create numerous issues for the players involved.As far as the ECB are concerned, however, the matches were approved by the ICC back in June, and so they have no doubts about their status. An ECB spokesman told Cricinfo that the other details were solely an issue for the WICB.A source at Digicel said that it had notified both the WICB and Stanford organisers about the proposal and was waiting for a response.

The former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond has not been given a first-class contract with Canterbury due to his commitments with the Indian Cricket League. Bond, who is already committed to play in a tournament organised by the unofficial league in India at the time the Canterbury contracts take effect, said it was not yet clear how much more time he would be required to spend in India.The New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Justin Vaughan said on Wednesday that Bond had to be available for Canterbury throughout the length of the deal from October to mid-April. “If he is unable to commit to that then I would think that precludes him from taking up a full-time contract. Of course, he can still play when he is available as a free agent for match fees as he did last season,” he told the , a Christchurch-based daily .Lee Germon, the former New Zealand captain, who is also chief executive of the Canterbury Cricket Association, echoed a similar sentiment. “He wants to play for Canterbury, which is great. The question mark was around how much of it would he be available for,” he told .Bond was stripped of his New Zealand contract last season after signing for the ICL, despite having initially been told by NZC he could still play for the national side after joining the unofficial league.He was also unhappy that other New Zealand players had been allowed to miss matches for the national side while playing for the officially-sanctioned Indian Premier League and still be offered NZC contracts.Bond said it was unfortunate that the Indian cricket board was trying to tell other countries how to run their game. “I think there has been too much bending over backwards to not upset India.”He played an ICL tournament in March and later signed with English county side Hampshire.

Private letters written by Don Bradman, largely to former Australian board chairman Bob Parish, have been discovered by Cricket Australia just days before his birth centenary on August 27. The subjects of the letters range from the ban on tours to South Africa during the apartheid era, remuneration for players, and World Series Cricket.Bradman was an administrator of the game for 35 years. In 1960 he was appointed the Australian board chairman – he served another term later that decade – and dealt with problems like chucking and apartheid during his tenure.The letters, published in several Australian papers on Sunday, reveal Bradman favoured giving bowlers a fairer deal as he suggests the lbw law be tweaked so that batsmen are given out for deliveries that pitch outside off and leg stump, provided they don’t offer a shot.Bradman wrote against a move to get the Australian government to intervene in the television rights issue that cropped up during Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket (he described Packer’s media promotions”propaganda”). He wrote to Parish: “I would not willingly support any move to have government interference in TV rights, which may control Packer because, as I have said many times before, it would inevitably bring control of the fees that may be paid.”The ban on touring South Africa, Bradman wrote, had moved cricket from the sporting basket and in to the political basket. “… not of our wish or doing, but by fate”. In April 1978 he wrote to South African cricket chief Joe Pamensky: ‘Unfortunately I am despondent in believing that although your cricketers have done everything you can in S.A., … countries will now come out with the verdict, the political verdict, that they can’t play in S.A. so long as Apartheid is government policy. Regrettable too, our Prime Minister, gives the impression he thinks the same way …”I think you will get a good and sympathetic hearing from the cricket fraternity in London but what use is that if the powers that be won’t let tours take place …”Evidence of his foresight lies in a letter on the problem of throwing in cricket. Bradman writes that it would be crazy to return to an earlier situation where there was no definition for throwing. “Those who claim recent events may have rectified the trouble may well be right – IN THE SHORT TERM [sic]. But in 10-20 years it would certainly return and be a bogey once more, and I think our responsibility is to provide now against such a contingency.” According to Bradman, the best way to test a bowler’s action is during a match where he is bowling flat out and does not know he is being filmed.

Ireland have named a strong squad for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup Qualifiers which will be held in Belfast between August 2 to 4.The inclusion of the county players who missed this week’s tri-series in Scotland will be a major boost. A weakened team were thrashed by New Zealand, losing by a record 290 runs, and then suffered a second defeat to the hosts.William Porterfield, who opted to remain with Gloucestershire, returns to captain the squad, while former skipper Trent Johnston, who stood down last season, also makes a comeback.Phil Eaglestone’s inclusion is dependent on the results of his visit to a specialist this weekend, with Reinhardt Strydom placed on standby should he be declared unfit.Ireland squad William Porterfield (capt), Niall O’Brien, Eoin Morgan, Kevin O’Brien, Andre Botha, Andrew White, Kyle McCallan, Alex Cusack, Gary Wilson, Trent Johnston, Thinus Fourie, Peter Connell, Phil Eaglestone, Gary Kidd.

Ahead of what has suddenly turned into a critical final, for Pakistan at least, the pressure on Shoaib Malik and Geoff Lawson has been cranked up by the PCB even further. Cricinfo has learnt that the performance of captain and coach is under intense scrutiny; though heads are unlikely to fall should Pakistan lose to India in the Kitply final in Dhaka, the Asia Cup in Pakistan later this month has been set as a deadline of sorts for Lawson, as well as Malik.The development follows a scathing email Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the board, sent to the team management in the aftermath of their 140-run defeat to India earlier in the week – their heaviest defeat ever to the arch-rivals.The match was Pakistan’s first proper test of the year, coming on the back of series against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. In the email, which was leaked to the press, Ashraf blasted the team strategy, their body language, the wicketkeeping and various other aspects of the performance.Senior board officials echoed the concerns, telling Cricinfo that the Asia Cup is likely to be the last chance for the Lawson-Malik combination to prove themselves. “There should be pressure on them both, not just Lawson,” one official vented to Cricinfo.”Malik is not doing his job. His team selection is way off. To give you one example, everyone knows we are struggling with openers. Instead of picking a pair of specialists and grooming them, he insists on using Kamran Akmal, who is patently the wrong choice. His ‘keeping is so poor he shouldn’t be in the team anyway.”Akmal has had a miserable couple of years behind the stumps, shelling chances in every country he has played in. On Tuesday, he dropped Virender Sehwag, though he tried claiming the catch, an act which earned the wrath of Ashraf. Malik has publicly backed him through his tenure, even going to the degree of calling him the second-best wicketkeeper-batsman in the world after Adam Gilchrist.Malik’s own tenuous position in the team is also the subject of another official’s ire. “The captain doesn’t realise his place in the team is as an allrounder. He saves himself from bowling; he is not a specialist batsman and he must bowl. If he doesn’t, then he has no place in the team.”Though criticism has swirled around Lawson almost since he arrived, this is the first time any board official has actually put down a deadline. Lawson was appointed on a two-year contract last year, but time is now running out.”We have decided to give him till the Asia Cup,” the official said. “If Pakistan doesn’t do well there, he will be gone. He has been very, very unimpressive since he came. As an ex-bowler, he hasn’t even been able to resolve the issue of extras and has done little else for the side. Players are not happy with him and we aren’t either.”Ironically, Lawson was thought to be the players’ choice at the time of his appointment, his seemingly ‘softer’ approach winning him the nod over the sterner Dav Whatmore. Since he succeeded the late Bob Woolmer, Pakistan have lost Test and ODI series to South Africa and India. He has also had run-ins on several occasions with the selection committee and though he had the chairman’s backing until recently, that support too, it is believed, is now gone.

Website regular Phil Hogarth was a very happy man when he called in at the County Ground to collect the items that he had successfully bid for in the recent Junior Sabres website auction.Phil, who lives at Hinton Blewitt in North Somerset bid for several items in the auction and was successful with his bids for Peter Bowler’s bat and Keith Dutch’s batting gloves.When he was collecting his items he told me: "I am really delighted to have got Peter Bowler’s bat and Keith Dutch’s batting gloves. The website auction was a great idea because it’s not very often you get the chance to own genuine items like this."Phil told me that he is a Somerset member and his son James, who would be rather envious of his dad when he appeared with his `new toys’, is a Junior Sabre so would benefit from the money that was raised by the auction.The items that he purchased will not however be kept in a show cabinet. Phil is a right handed batsman who plays for Harptree in the Bristol League and has every intention of using his new pieces of cricketing equipment.He told me: "The bat seems to have a good middle on it and feels just right for me. I shall be using next season and if it scores as many runs for me in the rest of my playing days as it did for Peter Bowler last season then I shall be more than happy!"Meanwhile the club has just taken delivery of the new 2003 Club Diary, which is a mine of information and a must for all Cidermen fans.The diary is available from the club office (01823 272946) in the Colin Atkinson Pavilion and is priced £7.50.

Lakmal Kasturiarachchige, who was one of the youngest players at the ECC European Championships has been rewarded for the promise he has shown at ECC tournaments, both in youth tournaments and for the senior national team, by being awarded one of three places available at Terry Jenner’s coaching clinic in London to be held in early January.Lakhmal, whilst originating from Sri Lanka, has learnt his cricket during his time in Austria, where he has become an automatic choice for his club Concordia CC. He broke into the National Team in 2002, with an impressive spell against MCC during their tour of Austria in June 2002 showing his calibre. Despite being one of the youngest players in the ECC Championships, he was unfazed by the demands of the tournament, despite it being his first experience of grass wickets, where he was Austria’s leading wicket-taker along with fellow youth team player Aman Deep, 16.Gary Palmer, Austrian National Coach, described Lakhmal as having great natural ability and strong technique, showing a great dealer of promise as a genuine all-rounder rather than just as a legspin bowler. He also commended Lakhmal’s willingness to learn, and believes that it is only a matter of time before Austria really sees his full potential as a matchwinner.