Cricket captains split on referrals

Test cricket's latest polarising issue - the umpire referral system - lived up to its reputation at the Gabba with rival skippers Ricky Ponting and Chris Gayle split in their feelings.

Gayle made it clear he was no fan after the explosive opener was twice burnt on plumb leg-before dismissals.

Both decisions were upheld after reviews by technology, the Windies skipper dismissed for 31 and one by Ben Hilfenhaus in the first Test thrashing.

Fellow batting kingpin Shivnarine Chanderpaul also wasted a challenge in the first innings when he was struck in front by Peter Siddle while second-innings century maker Adrian Barath appealed in hope when dismissed by Shane Watson.

The embattled tourists couldn't take a trick with the decision review system, making five challenges for no success.

Rubbing salt into the wounds, Gayle refrained from using it when Ponting was rapped on the pads plumb in front by Kemar Roach on day one.

The technology would have given Ponting out but the Windies were gun shy after being knocked back for a previous leg-before challenge.

"As I've said before, I'm not a big fan of it," Gayle told the press after the innings and 65-run loss.

"I need your help, I hope you can change it for me.

"Technology is part of the game, sometimes mistakes (are made) even with the technology, that's why I'm not a big fan of it.

"We might as well just go out there with two umpires in the middle, they either get it wrong or right."

The Windies' challenge policy was unashamedly to protect their top men, which failed on all fronts.

"It's there to use, why not give it a chance," Gayle said in defence.

Vice-captain Denesh Ramdin was candid, saying his opinion wavered depending on whether the final decision advantaged his side or not.

Ponting was categorical in his support, even though the system's underlying theme - to eradicate the howlers - appeared to cost Mitchell Johnson a legitimate challenge to a caught-behind verdict as the evidence was inconclusive.

"It's always going to be good for the game, whether or not every one is right is irrelevant I guess," the Australian captain said.

"We end up getting more correct decisions made."

Ponting backed the approach of the umpires to only overturn decisions if the technology conclusively proved the man in the middle was wrong.

"Without the system, that's the decision they would have made anyway, so I think that is a good sign," Ponting said.

Millman retires from Kent cricket

Kent chief executive Paul Millman has announced he is taking early retirement after 10 years at the club.

He is to leave the club with immediate effect for personal reasons.

A club spokesman said: "The club is grateful for his efforts over the past 10 years and wishes him a long and happy retirement.

"Jamie Clifford will be appointed acting chief executive whilst the club reviews its options and seeks applicants for the role."

Test cricket challenge for West Indies

The West Indies need early wickets to prevent Australia building a formidable total in the first cricket Test in Brisbane.

Australia was resuming play on Friday at five for 322.

Australia is in a good position going into the second day, with five wickets in hand.

The Windies were hampered by a hip injury to their main fast bowler, Jerome Taylor.

They need second new ball wickets to prevent Australia exceeding 400.

North was 42 at stumps on the first day, and Haddin 9.

Shane Warne wins the toss

SHANE Warne has won the toss for the ACA All Stars and elected to bowl first in the Twenty20 exhibition match against the Australia XI at the Gabba.

Warne is one of four former greats turning out for the Australian Cricket Association side assembled to promote the start of the international season.

Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden are also wearing the All Stars' blue uniform against the Michael Clarke-led Australians.

Clarke, Peter Siddle and Brad Haddin are the only current Test players in the Australian side.

Both sides will field 12 players with McGrath and Shaun Tait as non-batting bowlers.

Sri Lanka eye elusive Test win in India

KANPUR: Sri Lanka will renew efforts to win their first-ever Test in India when the second match begins on Tuesday, after being frustrated by a
Sangakkara

The islanders, who have never won a Test on Indian soil in six previous series, gave themselves a fair chance of scripting history at Ahmedabad by stacking up a huge 760/7 declared in their first innings.

But India wiped out a 334-run deficit on first innings, thanks to a docile pitch and some resolute batting by their top-order batsmen.

Sri Lanka's bowlers started out well to reduce India to 32/4 in the opening session but allowed them to score 426 in their first knock and struggled again in the second innings, failing to take 10 wickets over nearly four sessions.

The world's leading wicket-taker, Muttiah Muralitharan, was unable to take even a single wicket off 38 overs in the second innings, raising doubts over his effectiveness on flat wickets.

Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara said he was disappointed by the Motera track but admitted they should not have let India get away after having them on the mat on the first day of the match.

"We had our best chance when we had them 32 for four but we gave it away after lunch" on the opening day, said Sangakkara.

"There was not much for the bowlers on the last two days. If you were a batsman you would like it. I don't think anyone expected this wicket to be this flat."

Sangakkara was not the only one rueing the pitch, which saw a whopping 1,598 runs being scored, including a world-record sixth wicket stand of 351 between Mahela Jayawardene (275) and Prasanna Jayawardene (154 not out).

His Indian counterpart Mahendra Singh Dhoni was equally critical.

"The wicket was bad. It wasn't much help to the spinners. For the fast bowlers also the wicket got slower and slower," said Dhoni.

"We knew if we didn't give early wickets to the Sri Lankan bowlers it would be very difficult for them to get 10 wickets and that's what happened."

The focus in the second Test might once again be on the wicket that is laid out at the Green Park stadium.

The last Test played here between India and South Africa saw the home side wrap up an eight-wicket victory inside three days on a sub-standard track, prompting a warning from the International Cricket Council.

The wicket has since been relaid but the local media said the authorities wanted the match to be played on a "tried and tested" pitch.

"Our main concern is to have a full five-day game and we don't want to experiment on a relaid track. We want to play safe," The Hindustan Times quoted a state cricket official as saying.

The other worry for Sri Lanka apart from the wicket would be the fitness of paceman Dammika Prasad, who braved a hamstring injury to bowl four overs on the final day of the Ahmedabad match.

The tourists are already without fast bowler Thilan Thushara who had to go back home after failing to recover from a freak shoulder injury, suffered during a training session ahead of the first match.

The third and final Test begins in Mumbai on December 2.

India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay, Pragyan Ojha, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Subramaniam Badrinath.

Sri Lanka (from): Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Thilina Kandamby, Prasanna Jayawardene, Kaushal Silva, Chanaka Welegedara, Dilhara Fernando, Nuwan Kulasekera, Dammika Prasad, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis.

New Zealand players admit role in India 'riot'

WELLINGTON — Two New Zealand cricketers admitted Sunday to inadvertently sparking what has been described as a riot in the Indian city of Chennai after handing out money to street people.

The incident happened following an unauthorised drinking session during the New Zealand A tour of India in August.

Neil Broom and Aaron Redmond owned up after the Herald on Sunday newspaper reported that a riot broke out when two players began handing out money in Chennai.

"The intended charity quickly became more popular than the pair had counted on. The crowd grew larger and more unruly and, according to sources, a full-scale riot broke out," the newspaper said.

Although the players were not named in the article, Broom and Redmond later issued a statement admitting liability to remove the spotlight from the rest of the squad.

"Unfortunately when we decided to leave the night spot we were picked up by police following another poor decision to hand out money to people living on the street, whereupon a crowd developed," Redmond, a seven-Test batsman, said.

"The police initially took us back to the station and then arranged for a taxi to take us back to the hotel."

Broom said they accepted it was a serious breach of team protocols.

"We deeply regret the incident and wish to apologise to New Zealand Cricket," he said.

They were charged by New Zealand Cricket with serious misconduct for breaching team protocol but no details of any punishment were released.

"It was a confidential process, and New Zealand Cricket considers the matter closed," New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said.

New Zealand Cricket Players Association executive manager Heath Mills noted the players had not committed a crime and no charges were laid in India.

"The players fully accept that they should not have left the hotel, and also showed poor judgment in heading to a night spot and drinking, given preparations required for upcoming fixtures and the security position the team was in."

New Zealand, Pakistan strive for consistency

DUNEDIN, New Zealand — New Zealand and Pakistan start round two of their disrupted cricket series here Tuesday searching for respectability amid a background of upheaval.

The world's seventh and sixth ranked sides are two of the sport's most prominent underachievers, the result of mixing remarkable successes with spectacular collapses.

Both teams enter this three-Test series, following the one-day series in the United Arab Emirates earlier this month, wrestling with internal leadership crises and with parallel strengths and weaknesses.

For the first Test starting here on Tuesday, both sides have strong bowling armouries which will relish attacking batting line ups that have struggled in recent series to consistently control the middle for more than four sessions.

New Zealand are without a coach, entrusting both onfield leadership and off-field planning to captain Daniel Vettori after player criticism forced the resignation last month of coach Andy Moles.

Pakistan meanwhile have seen captain Younus Khan drop out of the tour over dissatisfaction with performances in the one-day series in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.

Reports from the subcontinent also indicate coach Intikhab Alam is under pressure with former captain Javed Miandad being tipped as a likely replacement-in-waiting.

The Tests in New Zealand follow the one-day series in the United Arab Emirates which New Zealand won 2-1, and the Twenty20 series won by Pakistan 2-0.

Although officially a Pakistan home series, it was relocated after New Zealand refused to go to Pakistan over security fears after militants attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore eight months ago.

Even without home track advantage, Pakistan still believe their bowling attack including Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif can make life a misery for New Zealand.

"We have a bowling attack that can get 20 wickets," said coach Intikhab Alam, while conceding that batting "will be a big challenge."

Much will depend on stand-in captain Yousuf Mohammad, who boasts a Test average of 54.86 from 82 tests.

In Pakistan's one chance to acclimatise in New Zealand, a three-day match against an Invitation XI which ended in a draw, Fawad Alam also showed he was in form with a 77 in their one turn at bat while Imran Farhat made 52.

New Zealand's inconsistent batting reputation has been further hampered by the loss of Jesse Ryder through injury and Jacob Oram retiring from Test play.

Peter Fulton and Grant Elliott have been recalled to fill the batting void but neither has set the world alight previously.

Fulton, a leading batsman at domestic level in New Zealand, has an average of just 24.72 from 12 Test innings while Elliot has been to the crease five times in Tests for a top score of nine.

Selector Mark Greatbatch said the pair had a simple assignment.

"They're quite solid sorts of players and maybe that's the glue we're looking for to solid up our batting unit in between the quite exciting strokeplay we have," he said.

In last week's warm-up game opener Tim McIntosh produced an unbeaten 131 and Daniel Flynn posted scores of 49 and 56.

Shane Bond returns from two years in the cricket wilderness to share the new ball with Chris Martin.

Daryl Tuffey, who like Bond has been playing in the renegade Indian Cricket League, is likely to head Iain O'Brien as the third seamer given his record of 24 wickets in six Tests against Pakistan.

Squads:

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (captain), Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Grant Elliott, Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond, Iain O'Brien, Daryl Tuffey, Chris Martin, Jeetan Patel.

Pakistan: Mohammad Yousuf (captain) Salman Butt, Khurrum Manzoor, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Fawad Alam, Faisal Iqbal, Kamran Akmal, Danish Kaneria, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamir, Abdur Rauf, Umer Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed.

Now Sri Lanka drowns India in Gujarat

The Test match fixing two mischievous innings does to stand the scrutiny of any real cricket game as a competitive sport, resulting in disastrous draws- preplanned or otherwise. The first test match ended in draw as expected after the mammoth score from Sri Lanka on Indian soil. Draw is not a crime, after all tests are merely practice sessions, but the records set in Test matches with dubious standards do create problems.

Obviously, Sri Lanka, possibly on demand from the cricket mafia or Indian agencies directly, did not want to win that match and decided to go for the draw to appease Indian sponsors, mafia and lunatic cricket fans. But most intriguing fact is India did not agree for the draw as the situation warranted, as Pakistan and New Zealand did in NZ in their first Test on 19 Nov where Pakistan made better score in the first innings and New Zealand was still worse in the second innings.- but Indian greats insisted that the guests should offer a century each to these whom they dumped in the first innings, namely Sachin, Shewag and gambhir, etc. Sri Lanka perhaps had no choice but to oblige the hosts, lest Indian could engineer terror attack to terrorize the Lankan boys. Already when Jayewardene was batting several Indian usual gimmicks on a pavilion were employed to coerce him to throw his bat, but failed. And, result, gambhir was offered 100 plus, shevag a fifty plus and Sachin a super hundred and the match was drawn. Look at the way the so-called greats in cricket behaved: they coerced the guests to offer 100 to Sachin so that Indian greatness is not spoilt beyond certain point. The match ended not without Sachin getting a 100 from Sri Lanka- what a pity and it is shame on India. !!

This is about how Sri Lankan cricketers outsmarted the Indian outfits in their own turf demolishing the records set by Indians and others one by one in Ahmadabad cricket stadium where they clashed for the Test -1. Although Indian outfits managed to get one century each for gambhir and Sachin, on the eve of announcements of Republic day awards for selfless, free services to this Hindu nation, , they were crushed to the bottom level by the visitors. Mahela Jayawardene is the Man of Match MoM for his excellent 275 - his 27th Test century -and has broken some important "records" in Gujarat. They all slay the winner has been the wicket, but loser has been the cricket. The finale was continued until India's most pampered Sachin is offered a full 100 to his credit empty of genuine glory. As such for Sri Lankan winning the Test was less important than appeasing the guests after they got a massive score of 700 plus.

The only plus point about Indian cricket team is Zaheer Khan who took two important massive wickets including of SL skipper Sangakkara. The remaining Indian parts are mediocre. The first Test between India and Sri Lanka was in favor of Sri Lanka, though it looked tantalizingly poised after day four's play. Sachin thus won and India lost miserably, he got what he wanted- a 100 before pulling down the curtain in Ahmadabad, but India lost to Sri Lanka in all practical measures.. India media argue if Sachin is offered 100 what is point in playing against India. Sri Lanka clearly has registered their first victory on Indian soil.

Indian celebrates crucial defeats these days. That is fine. But India glorifies substandard as the greatest. That is a state or media crime, as the case may be. Indian sponsors dictate terms to the other teams and manages records for its players and glorifying such wins. When a nation is defeated, rather crushed badly, the fanatic media don’t show that global insult, but still praise a much pampered batsman, it looks funny. The case in point is terror India and its cricket team thrashed badly by Sri Lanka for the first time in history inside India. It is shameless but a country and leaders, who have stolen the Kashmiris properties and killed over a lakh Muslims there by using India-UK-Russo-Israeli terror machines, cannot be expected otherwise. Indian media, both state and private, print and radio stations, intentionally announced Sri Lanka was at 375 for 5 wickets for too long even when it had reached 520.