All posts by csb10.top

John Davison, the Canada captain, conceded his side resembled a village cricket team in their seven-wicket loss to Kenya. Davison was equally concerned with Canada’s bowling as their batting after Steve Tikolo guided Kenya past their target of 200 with 40 balls to spare.”There weren’t too many positives there for us,” Davison told . “Geoff Barnett got us off to a pretty good start but once he was out I don’t think we competed for the rest of the game. That pretty much sums it up.”Barnett departed for 41 and Kenya’s spinners troubled the Canada middle-order before the innings finished with what Davison called a series of “village and embarrassing” run-outs. In the field, Canada gave away 18 wides and two no-balls.”It didn’t click,” Davison said. “It was really disappointing. We haven’t bowled that many extras in a game for a long time. Maybe the pressure of the occasion got to us.”Davison said the efforts of the Kenya spinners, especially Hiren Varaiya (1 for 19 off ten) and Jimmy Kamande (2 for 25 from ten) were good but Canada could have handled them better. “(Varaiya) is a good spinner but I don’t think there is a world-class spinner in that team,” he said. “It’s an opportunity missed for us.”Tikolo, who made 72 not out and took 2 for 34 in a Man-of-the-Match performance, said Kenya were a chance to progress past the group stage with a win over England or New Zealand. “I believe in my players, I do have confidence in them,” Tikolo said.”They know this is the World Cup and this is the big stage. How they carried themselves today goes to show they were up for it. All in all it was a good game. Up front we gave away too many runs but the spinners pulled it back in the middle.”

Former India spinner Murali Kartik has whole-heartedly backed the West Indies after their controversial win over Zimbabwe at the Under-19 World Cup on Tuesday. West Indies fast bowler Keemo Paul mankaded the last man Richard Ngarava with three runs needed off the final over to help his team through to the quarter-finals. The incident has led to fierce debate but Kartik, who has dismissed three batsmen in such a manner over his playing career, remains steadfast in his belief that a bowler is completely justified in effecting what is just another “mode of dismissal.”Among the arguments given by pundits who were critical of West Indies was that Paul had failed to warn Ngarava. But Kartik argued the rules do not demand that courtesy.”It is one of those things where people are once again going to bring up the spirit of cricket issue,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s very simple; you are not allowed to steal anything in life so stealing anything whether an inch or a yard when it’s a crucial time, it’s not done. People are going to say he wasn’t warned, but the rule is very clear, you are not supposed to leave the popping crease before the bowler delivers the ball. There are different modes of dismissals and this is one of them and I don’t know why people create such a hue and cry about the spirit of cricket.”Most bowlers do warn a batsman before mankading him and Kartik used to do so at least thrice. However, he believes he had the time since he was playing a first-class cricket across four days. Here, West Indies were defending only a handful of runs with six balls left and needed the wicket to progress in a World Cup.”For me the situations were different, I was playing a four-day game,” Kartik said. “I had the time to warn, that was something that was happening for a very long time. I didn’t want to get that person out, I just wanted to warn him and if somebody doesn’t heed to the warnings after three times, then obviously there’s nothing left. Over here, there were just three runs required and the last man was in and they wanted to win the game, so it’s a different situation.”Zimbabwe’s players were visibly distraught after the match, with captain Brandon Mavuta repeatedly saying “No comment” in the post-match presentation ceremony. Their coach Stephen Mangongo was more vocal: “It is my honest and sincere opinion as a coach, who has been coaching this game for nearly two decades, that at youth cricket you want to teach them sportsmanship, you want to teach them to win with honour and valour. And I do not think that they’ve won with honour, by sneaking a run out in such a manner.”Kartik laughed off that view, saying the West Indies players should in fact be complimented for their game awareness in a high-pressure situation.”They are not kids, they are 19-year olds and many people have played for their countries at the age of 14 and 15.” he said. “When you get to that level, there’s no kid, everybody is treated at par, at the end of the day they are playing for their country. If the other team is trying to win by stealing, is that what you are trying to tell everyone that Zimbabwe were trying to win by gaining that extra yard.”I don’t know why people use the word “Mankad”, it should be on the name of the person who is trying to steal that extra advantage. The person who does it is always the one who is vilified but for me, I have always believed whether you steal a rupee or a million rupees, stealing is stealing. They were just trying to win the game. I am glad they know the rules, and somebody was aware enough to see that someone was trying to take unfair advantage in a tight situation.”TV commentator and former Zimbabwe bowler Mpumelelo Mbangwa, in his post-match analysis for the host broadcaster, said he would have wanted the on-field umpires to take charge of the situation and ask if the West Indies captain really wanted to go ahead with the appeal. Other critics have also argued that the intent of the batsman should have been taken into consideration before he was ruled out via a mankad. Was he willfully stepping outside his crease or was it simply the result of a natural urgency that comes with wanting to get the required runs in a tense situation? But Kartik did not entertain those views either and offered a few analogies to back his stance.”When a bowler misses the crease by a micrometer, isn’t it a no ball?” he said. “Or when a run out or a stumping is referred to the third umpire, the line belongs to the umpire, [and] whether you are a millimeter or a micrometer out, you are out.”Let me put another situation [across]. As a spinner, when I am bowling and someone is beaten in the air and he drags the foot by a micrometer, is the keeper going to ask him, ‘Can I stump you or not? Are you out? Are you trying to take a single?’ No, that’s not the case. So, I am really sorry, whether it’s a micrometer or an inch or a mile out, he’s out.”The spirit of cricket is a convenient bunker for people to hide behind. Everybody needs to look into themselves. How many times do people nick and not walk? How many times do people claim catches that aren’t catches and they know it? The situation was such, the kids were trying to win a game and anybody who flouts rules, obviously you have to pay a price.”

Ere Sheshiah, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy of the Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, claimed that cell-phone pictures showed that a third party was behind Woolmer’s death. On the first day of his testimony to an inquest in Jamaica, Sheshiah had maintained that Woolmer had died because of poisoning and strangulation.”After viewing the cellular phone pictures taken by Dr [Asher] Cooper [the first doctor to attend to Woolmer], I think definitely that there was a third party [involved],” Sheshiah said.He criticised the three pathologists – Nathaniel Cary of England, Michael Pollanen of Canada and Lorna Martin of South Africa – who had pointed out flaws in his post-mortem procedure and testified that Woolmer died due to natural causes. Sheshiah said that the review procedure was “unusual and unacceptable”, Cary’s opinion was not final, and that Martin gave her findings without seeing the histology and toxicology reports.Sheshiah also said that Woolmer was found with his head under the toilet bowl. “In my opinion, it is not possible for the disease to put him in such a position. This definitely speaks of a third party.”The fact that other pathologists had disagreed with his conclusion that the hyoid bone in Woolmer’s neck was broken, was also addressed by Sheshiah, who stood by his findings despite admitting that an x-ray showed it might not have been broken.Woolmer was found unconscious in his room at the Pegasus Hotel on March 18, a day after Pakistan’s shock defeat to Ireland in the World Cup. The police had initially backed Sheshaiah’s finding that Woolmer was murdered and released a statement in that effect, but after a review by Cary, Pollanen, and Martin, confirmed that Woolmer died of natural causes.The inquest, presided over by coroner Patrick Murphy and 11 jurors, is expected to end on November 9.

Ricky Ponting is still working out how to tackle Ishant Sharma. You could say he is a bit puzzled. The Australian captain admitted as much as Ishant waited to talk about his spoils at the post-match media briefing.”He’s been a big improver for India through this tour”, Ponting said of Ishant, who has already got him thrice this summer. Memories of the WACA Test, where he twice edged Ishant to the slips, during the Test series, seem to still haunt Ponting and he had no answer to Ishant’s poser on Sunday.Not surprising, then, that Ishant knows the value of having the number of the one of the best batsmen of this decade. “Ponting is one my favourite batsmen and if you get the batsman complimenting you, it feels good,” Sharma explained modestly.Even if he was taking the new ball for the first time in the ODIs Ishant had fast-tracked his growth as a bowler on the first leg of the tour to a position where he was able to handle the pressures of sharing the new ball. He stuttered a touch initially; his first ball was a no-ball, the fifth was a wide and in between Hayden edged one just above the outstretched hands of Rohit Sharma at the third slip. He was clearly still settling in the next over and went for 18 runs, including three fours from Hayden’s bat.Ishant wasn’t beaten, though, and recovered sufficiently to pick up three top-order wickets in Hayden, Ponting and Andrew Symonds to effectively turn the match in India’s favour. Later, he explained his turnaround. “After that over [when he went for 18] Dhoni told me to stick to my plans. He felt I was trying to do something else and instead I should do what I had to. I calmed down from that point.”It wasn’t just calmness, of course; it also involved execution of a plan. “We had our plans for each batsman and I just worked on that. For Ponting, it was to bowl to him on the fourth stump.”Ponting reckons Ishant is one of the few right-arm fast bowlers who can bring the ball in and that makes him a difficult proposition. “He’s a little bit different in the fact that he probably brings the ball back into right-handers more than most right-arm bowlers we have faced. Normally as a right-handed batsman you usually only get the ball coming back in from left-armers. He’s tall, he hits the deck pretty hard and he gets a little bit of inconsistent bounce off the wicket.”Ponting said Ishant has the variety that can also trouble the left-handers and compared him to the Makhaya Ntini in that respect. “He’s looked dangerous. With the angles he creates he can be pretty dangerous against the left-handers as well and he swings the ball away from them, a bit like Ntini does.”When asked if the workload has been an issue, Ishant said he was fine even if he felt a “little tired” at the end of today’s encounter. “I was a bit tired and I had stomach aches but I have bowled long spells and my stamina is improving.”

Scorecard
Points table

Victoria experienced a few nervous moments before capping a fine preparation for Saturday’s Pura Cup final with a six-wicket victory over Queensland, who will finish with the wooden spoon. Ryan Broad’s century made sure the Bushrangers had to bat again and the target of 75 was looking uncomfortable when Scott Brant and Grant Sullivan dropped them to 4 for 34.Cameron White found a willing partner in Andrew McDonald and there were no further stumbles. White added 28 while McDonald got 13 to seal the three-day success.Broad’s 107, which included a six to bring up his century and another next ball before he was bowled by Bryce McGain, went with his 75 in the first innings, but he did not receive much assistance from his team-mates. Queensland started the day 119 behind and the task to stay competitive became even tougher when they lost five wickets before lunch. Clint McKay started the problems when he removed Nick Kruger (11) and Aaron Nye in consecutive deliveries – the hat-trick effort to Shane Watson was a no-ball.Watson skipped to 32 before falling to a diving take from Adam Crosthwaite and McDonald added to the damage when he captured the lbws of Nathan Reardon (1) and the captain Chris Simpson (0). The Bulls were 5 for 71 and struggling to force a second Bushrangers’ innings.Broad achieved that with help from Chris Hartley’s 17 and Daniel Doran’s 23, but when the tail exited quickly Queensland did not have much to defend. McKay grabbed 3 for 69 while McDonald and McGain earned two wickets each in a strong warm-up for the final against New South Wales in Sydney.

Under the glare of floodlights, the gaze of television viewers at home and surrounded by some rather lonely looking concrete terraces, Colts Cricket Club qualified for the final of the Premier Division Limited Overs tournament at Premadasa International Stadium tonight. They defeated Tamil Union by 44 runs in a low scoring but nevertheless keenly fought match.It was a praiseworthy initiative by the Sri Lankan cricket board to host the final stages of this otherwise low-key tournament under lights and to invite the television cameras into the stadium. Unfortunately, they were less successful in pulling in the spectators. Nevertheless, it was surely a step in the right direction. Who knows, with further promotion and similar initiatives, this tournament may well arrest the attention of Sri Lanka cricket fans in years to come.The match itself was no jamboree. A sluggish pitch ensured that stroke play remained purely functional and the bowling attritional. This is not to distract from the game, which remained a tense affair until Dinuka Hettiarachchi bowled Upul Chandana in the 32nd over of the run chase.When Colts CC were bowled out for a meager 174 it looked as though an upset was on the cards. With their bowling attack packed with fast bowlers on a surface that cried out for the twirly men, Roy Dias, the Colts coach, would surely have been apprehensive.However, the Colts seam attack showed that the quick men too can prosper on turgid pitches by displaying the age old virtues of a tight line and unerring length. With the exception of Eric Upashantha, who bowled four wides in his opening burst, the fast bowlers remained disciplined throughout.The Tamil Union batsmen batted cautiously, with hindsight perhaps too much so, in the opening overs. Gradually the pressure shifted away from the fielding side and onto the batsmen as the Tamil Union innings was caught in the doldrums.Wickets began falling, steadily at first but with increasing frequency thereafter. Kumara (5) was the first batsmen to fall when he was trapped LBW by Upashantha in the sixth over of the innings. Ranga Dias (9), normally a free scoring player, was caught in two minds whilst trying to pull DulipLiyanage and popped up an easy catch in the 12th over.Malintha Gajanayake (2) was dismissed during a miserly spell of bowling from the young Kaushalya Weereratne – he bowled an eight over spell that yielded just nine runs – when he drove too early at a full-length delivery and was caught at mid off.The balance of the game had now shifted and Tamil Union were 47 for three in the 17th over. Then, the game swung decisively towards Colts when Rideegammanagedara, who faced 19 balls for his single run, was both dropped and run out of the same delivery, and Chandana (19) was bowled off his pads. After the dismissal of their captain Tamil Union capitulated losing their last five wickets for just 41 runs.The early part of the day had belonged to Tamil Union’s spin quartet. Led by the irrepressible Mutiah Muralitharan, who picked up five wickets for 15 runs, they ran through a powerful Colts batting line-up, taking nine of the ten wickets to fall.The only batsmen to prosper were Chaminda Mendis, with a diligent 35, and Kulatunga, with a sparkling 35, which included five boundaries. When this pair were separated after a stand of 67 the innings subsided and it was left to Eric Upasthantha to ensure respectability with what turned out to be a crucial 34 runs.

Malcolm Speed has insisted the ICC will not bow to India’s demands on the Harbhajan Singh issue and they will have to accept any ruling on his case. India have threatened to call off their Australia tour if the hearing does not clear Harbhajan, who has been banned for three Tests, of racial abuse.Harbhajan is allowed to play until his appeal is heard, although there is doubt whether it will be before the third Test in Perth next week, or even before the series finishes. The ICC has already brought in a new umpire, Billy Bowden, to replace the much-criticised Steve Bucknor, which has placated India for the time being.”I am very pleased the tour is going ahead, there is a process in place for appeals and Harbhajan Singh has appealed,” Speed, the ICC chief executive, told the Times. “India have signed off on the appeals process. They were there when all the discussions took place.”We can’t have one set of rules for the India team and another set for everyone else. We will follow the process and I hope whatever the outcome all parties will be able to say they have had a fair hearing.”Speed also rejected suggestions that the appeal may be postponed so the lucrative tour is not put in jeopardy. He said, instead, that the primary concern was the logistics of bringing together the necessary individuals at once.However, Lalit Modi, the Board of Control for Cricket vice-president, said that the decision to continue with the tour was “interim” pending the result of the appeal against Harbhajan’s ban.”It was an interim decision of the ICC to ban Harbhajan, and, because of that, it is an interim decision by the BCCI to continue the tour,” Modi told the . “The controversy continues until Harbhajan’s name is cleared. We are not applying pressure to the ICC. They have simply reacted the way they should have. This isn’t an issue about money or power, but what is right for the game. We will wait to see what the outcome of Harbhajan’s appeal is and we will make a decision from there.”It has been well publicised that Harbhajan is alleged to have called Andrew Symonds a “monkey”, but this was not, according to the Australian, for the first time. The newspaper reports the allegation that Harbhajan taunted Symonds with the same epithet during an ODI in Mumbai last October. It is understood that players at a team meeting wanted to report Harbhajan to the match referee, but Symonds insisted he sort it out on a personal basis with a one-on-one discussion.The tape of the Sydney Test appears to back up the claims. It shows Ricky Ponting telling Harbhajan it was the second time he had crossed the line.

Paul Nixon will captain Leicestershire in their remaining County Championship matches this season, taking over from Darren Robinson whose form has been poor in the first half of the summer.Nixon’s first match in charge will be against Glamorgan, starting on Sunday, as the Championship resumes following a two-week break for Twenty20.”I am delighted to be working with Paul as captain. He has consistently been a high performer on the field and as well as being one of the fittest members of the squad, he is a role model to all,” said coach Tim Boon. “His appointment will help us to develop our policy this year of giving the most promising young players at Grace Road a chance to stake a claim for a regular first team place alongside other senior players.”Boon added that the club needed some fresh ideas after a slow start to the season, which has seen them miss out on the Twenty20 quarter-finals due to the wet weather.”The first half of the season has been indifferent for a number of reasons,” he said. “We have had a catalogue of injuries, international call ups including RP Singh to the Indian touring team and latterly the weather”Despite the adversity in the first half of the season, I have been very encouraged by the way Jeremy Snape has led the one-day team and look forward to the Pro40 in the second half of the season.”Snape will continue to lead the one-day side and Robinson is due for a run in the second XI as he tries to find his form.

Wisden CricInfo Polly Umrigar
Unfortunately when he passed away, I was at his bedside, around 10pm late last evening. I had gone to visit him in the evening, and around 8pm he just opened his eyes, but I don’t think he recognised me. He was in a bad state and was on the oxygen mask, and I felt really bad for him going through this suffering. We played cricket together for so long, and for the last 15 years, we were neighbours, so we were very close to each other and I have lost a dear friend.An asset to any side, Ramchand was an allrounder and a gutsy and tough cricketer. He was a brilliant close-in fielder and he had no gear to protect him, which just goes to show how brave he was. The 109 against Australia in Bombay in 1956-57 stands out in my eyes as one of his best knocks. As a captain, he was an average skipper, but he always led by example. A jovial character off the field, his tough character on it used to motivate his fellow players.Chandu Borde
I am shocked to hear this news, as I didn’t know it till now. I have lost a family member. What a fine gentleman he was – always well-dressed, cordial and level-headed. Though he had limited resources as a bowler, he was quite deceptive. A decent leader of men, he was very tolerant; even if a player was not scoring runs, he never used to get irritated and used to take things in the stride. He led us brilliantly to victory against Richie Benaud’s Australians in the Kanpur Test [in 1959-60], always giving us the self-belief that we could beat them. As a batsman he possessed a tremendous punch along with a good sense of timing. I remember on our train journeys we – Tat (Vijay Manjrekar), Bapu Nadkarni and myself – used to pull his leg by speaking in Marathi, and although he couldn’t speak it, he used to understand. At the same time he never was silent and used to give it back.Nari Contractor
He was a very good man and it is very sad that he had to struggle for a long time when the end came. I was lucky that I got to see him a few days back when I visited him in the hospital. As a captain he was never arrogant and always had that we-can-do-it kind of attitude and that was on display when he was the skipper when we won against the Australians at Kanpur. Although this moment came late in his life, he deserved it. He should have taken over the captaincy in the immediate aftermath of Polly’s [Umrigar] resignation. One of the hardest-hitting batsmen of his era, his finest innings came at Brabourne in Bombay against the Australians and came against the odds. He was also a genuine allrounder – not very fast, but he could get the job done.

Graham Ford was appointed India’s coach on Saturday, filling a two-month-old vacancy and ending a search that seemed to have come to life in only the past week. Ford, the players’ choice for the job, has been offered a one-year contract and is expected to start work during India’s tour of Ireland later this month.After hearing the presentations of both Ford and John Emburey, the former England offspinner, the BCCI decided to go with Ford. The decision has to be ratified by the working committee of the Board of Control of Cricket in India, which meets in Delhi on June 12, but that is expected to be a mere formality.Addressing a haphazard and chaotic press conference soon after hearing presentations from both candidates, and then further deliberating among themselves, N Srinivasan, the BCCI treasurer, said, “The committee constituted to select the next Indian coach met and it was decided that the name of Mr Graham Ford would be put forward for the job of Indian coach.””It is now for the working committee of the BCCI, which meets in Delhi on June 12, to make the appointment final,” Srinivasan said. It is now up to Ford to indicate when he can seek a release from Kent, the English county where he is currently contracted till 2008.Just as there seems to be no defined season as far as the organising of matches is concerned, it appears that there’s no real system when it comes to the holding of meetings. The action began to heat up at the Park Sheraton well before 5pm, as Sharad Pawar was present in the hotel and a massive posse of policemen, in uniform and plainclothes, “secured” the area. From the portico outside the hotel to the main lobby, to the elevators, all passages were dotted withcops.The first real signs of activity began at about 7.20pm when both Emburey and Ford walked into the hotel. They’d both arrived in Chennai on a British Airways flight in the wee hours of Saturday. Once they’d posed for the gathered television cameras and still photographers, they were ushered up to the room where they would make their presentations.After the arrival of the candidates came the committee. The trio of board officials – Niranjan Shah, the secretary, Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer, and Mohinder Pandove, the joint secretary – made their way to the meeting room well before the appointed hour. Next to arrivewere two former captains, Ravi Shastri and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. The last man to arrive – and he was pulled away from his holiday in Goa – was Sunil Gavaskar, who clocked in at 8.20pm.Just over two hours later, Ford had the job. Kent will doubtless be reluctant to see him leave mid-season, but if that issue is resolved quickly, Ford’s first assignment might be a three-match series against the team that he coached with distinction for three years at the turn of the millennium.