All posts by csb10.top

Ian Bell: good form won him selection © Getty Images

Warwickshire’s Ian Bell has been preferred to Robert Key and Kevin Pietersen in the England squad for the series opener against Bangladesh at Lord’s on Thursday week.Bell’s early season form – he has scored 482 runs at over 80 so far in the Championship – meant that the much-hyped Pietersen missed out. And David Graveney, England’s head of selection, greeted the questions about Pietersen with an air of weary inevitability. “Kevin has received a lot of media attention and we had to make a choice between him and Graham Thorpe … Graham did well last time out and is our most experienced player and we hope he’ll recover from injury in time to win his 99th Test cap.”””I don’t think I could have done any more in terms of the amount of runs I have scored,” Bell explained. “It still came as a surprise. After all, Rob Key was the man in possession and he’s had a decent start to the season, while Kevin did fantastically well in the one-dayers in South Africa, so it was never straightforward.”Jon Lewis, Gloucestershire’s fast bowler, could make his debut after a good start to the season (he has taken 18 wickets at 22.55) and was preferred to the centrally-contracted James Anderson. Whether Lewis plays seems to depend on whether Simon Jones can recover from a back injury.England squad Michael Vaughan (capt), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Graham Thorpe, Ian Bell, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones (wk), Ashley Giles, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Simon Jones, Jon Lewis.

Shaun Udal has capped a fine season with a tour to Pakistan © Getty Images

England have recalled Shaun Udal for the tour of Pakistan after a break of 10 years in his international career. Alex Loudon has also been selected for the Test leg of the tour after impressing for Warwickshire with his offspin, and the ability to bowl a ball which spins the other way. Liam Plunkett, the young Durham quick bowler, is included in the one-day squad but Darren Gough has been left out on his own request.All 12 players who featured during the Ashes series are unsurprisingly selected with James Anderson also travelling, although he has lost his central contract. Chris Tremlett, who was in the England squads for the first four Tests against Australia, is in both squads and Matt Prior is the reserve keeper ahead of Chris Read.Commenting on the selection the chairman of selectors, David Graveney, said: “In choosing our Test squad, the area that involved the most discussion was the choice of spin bowlers. Udal is an experienced spinner and based on his performances this summer, we felt he merited inclusion ahead of other candidates such as Gareth Batty, Richard Dawson and Graeme Swann.”Without wishing to be too blunt, regrettably their performances during the summer have probably been disappointing for them. Shaun, by far, is the performing bowler at the present time.”Loudon and Plunkett are two emerging players who have been included in the Test and one-day squads respectively. This is an excellent opportunity for them and we feel they will both benefit from working with Troy Cooley and learning more about the international environment.”Simon Jones has been included in both squads subject to fitness. He made an enormous contribution to our Ashes victory and we will continue to monitor his recovery from injury in close consultation with the medical team.”With regard to the wicket-keeping position, the selectors were aware of the credentials of Read, Prior and James Foster. Prior has been a part of the one-day squad before and we feel that he is the best candidate to understudy Geraint Jones on this tour.”Gough asked the selectors not to consider him for the one-day squad’s tour to Pakistan this winter. Darren would like to make clear that he has not decided to retire from one-day International cricket and the selectors fully understand his reasons for making himself unavailable to tour.”Darren Gough said: “I have played a lot of cricket over the last 12 months and I feel that a rest would be beneficial for me at this stage of my career. I have toured regularly with England over the past ten years and this decision will also give me an opportunity to spend more time with my children.”The Academy squad is a mixture of youngsters and established county players. Steven Davies, the Worcestershire wicketkeeper, and Mark Footitt, a left arm seamer from Nottinghamshire represent the youth while Owais Shah, Robert Key and Ed Joyce are rewarded for prolific domestic seasons. Read is offered the chance to keep his name in the frame while Plunkett will also spend time at the Academy.England squad Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Geraint Jones, Simon Jones, Alex Loudon, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett, Marcus Trescothick, Shaun Udal.England one-day squad Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison, Geraint Jones, Simon Jones, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Liam Plunkett, Vikram Solanki, Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett, Marcus TrescothickNational Academy Squad Gareth Batty, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Rikki Clarke, Alastair Cook, James Dalrymple, Steven Davies, Mark Footitt, Ed Joyce, Robert Key, Sajid Mahmood, Liam Plunkett, Chris Read, Owais Shah, Tom Smith, Luke Wright, Mike Yardy

Ian Bell won the match award at the last Benson & Hedges Trophy final in 2002© Cricinfo

The ECB has given domestic one-day cricket a revamp, starting from 2006. The C&G Trophy will lose its knockout format, but retain the late-August final, while the National League will be played towards the end of the season and its matches will be 40 overs per side. The move follows last month’s announcement that all domestic one-day cricket will be played in coloured clothing from next summer.The C&G Trophy, first as the Gillette Cup and later as the NatWest Trophy, had been a wholly knockout competition since 1963. Its league matches will be scheduled for the start of the summer, much like the old Benson & Hedges Cup, which was replaced in 2003 by Twenty20. There will be two conferences, north and south, made up of the 18 first-class counties, Ireland, and Scotland, who will no longer participate in the National League. The winners of each conference will meet in the final.Surrey’s Mike Soper is the chairman of the domestic structure interim working party which recommended the changes. “I am extremely pleased with the outcome of this report, which was unanimously acclaimed at the recent first-class forum meeting,” he told reporters. “We will now have a strong competition in the C&G Trophy which reflects international cricket.”

Since he cemented his place in the Australian middle-order, Darren Lehmann has scored five centuries in nine games. After today’s unbeaten effort, he spoke to the press.On the conditions
It was hard work out there, pretty much all day, because of the field settings. The pitch spun a fair bit and it’s quite slow which made it hard to get into any rhythm.On his prolific run of form
I’m not sure that there is a secret – it’s just that I am playing well at the moment and it’s good to get some runs to make up for lost time. The pleasing thing is that I am quite relaxed at the crease these days and I suppose that comes with experience and confidence in your game. That seems to be the trick at the moment. I am playing the game for what it is – a game.On countering the threat from Sri Lanka’s spinners
You have got to have a plan [in Sri Lanka] and my plan seems to be working at the moment. I am quite confident coming down the wicket, which you have to back yourself to do over here. In the past teams have come here and let the spinners dictate, but we have certainly gone about it in a different way and had some success doing so.On the Sri Lankan defensive tactics
The wicket had enough to bowl attacking lines, but they did not back their bowlers enough. I was a little bit bored for a while but it is Test cricket and you focus pretty quickly back onto the job. It is just one of the things they do over here, they like to bowl to those kind of fields and you have to learn to cope with it. You have to come up with a plan to counteract their tactics, whether it is batting slightly outside leg or running up the wicket to work singles.

Runako Morton is put out of his misery finally, as Nathan Bracken traps him in front © Getty Images

West Indies went into the DLF Cup final against Australia feeling good about their chances, but they should have known that Australia can get quite ruthless when the stakes get high. They have a history of thrashing opponents in finals, and West Indies themselves have been at the receiving end earlier: in the first final of the Carlton & United Series in 2001, West Indies were humbled by 134 runs, their biggest defeat against Australia in terms of runs. The 127-run defeat in the DLF Cup final slots in second place. (Click here for a list of Australia’s most convincing ODI wins against West Indies when batting first.)West Indies’ score of 113 was their third-lowest in all ODIs against Australia. Their lowest – 87 – came in a bizarre match during the Benson & Hedges World Series in 1992-93, after they had earlier dismissed Australia for 101.The West Indians put in a terrible display with the bat, but the worst of them all was Runako Morton, who played out 30 dot balls before being dismissed off the 31st. It was the slowest duck ever scored in one-day internationals, beating the earlier record which also belonged to a West Indian – Phil Simmons made one off 23 balls against New Zealand in Goa in 1994-95. The table below lists the eight longest ducks in ODIs, in terms of balls faced.

Longest ducks in ODIs

Batsman	Balls faced	Opposition	Venue & year
Runako Morton	31	Australia	Kuala Lumpur, 2006
Phil Simmons	23	New Zealand	Goa, 1994-95
Athar Ali Khan	22	India	Mumbai, 1998
Graeme Fowler	21	New Zealand	Sydney, 1982-83
Graeme Labrooy	20	England	Delhi, 1989-90
Tim de Leede	19	Pakistan	Lahore, 1995-96
Alan Mullally	19	Sri Lanka	Dambulla, 2000-01
Derek Underwood	18	Australia	Birmingham, 1977

Andy Caddick is set to sign a new four-year contract with Somerset. Caddick, who has not played international cricket since the fifth Ashes Test last January, began work in the nets this week for the first time since undergoing back surgery last September.”I’ve had a couple of meetings with him and we’ll sort it out soon,” Peter Anderson, Somerset’s chief executive, told BBC Radio Bristol. “He looks OK in the nets although he’s only bowling off a few paces, but his back has mended well and he’s in good shape.”Caddick was rumoured to be moving to Warwickshire for next season, but if this deal with Somerset goes through, Caddick, 35, will end his career at Taunton, where he started it in 1991.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Indian board, has confirmed that Ahmedabad will be the venue for India’s first Test against New Zealand, which starts on October 8. “The Green Park stadium in Kanpur is not fit to stage the Test, so we have shifted the match to Ahmedabad.”As had earlier been anticipated, the game has been shifted from Green Park in Kanpur due to poor ground conditions there. Kanpur has experienced heavy monsoon rains which have damaged the newly laid pitch and the seating area in the stadium. Jyoti Bajpai, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UCPA), expressed his disappointment, but agreed that there was no other solution.”Even the pitches committee had refused to take any responsibility regarding the Green Park wicket. Besides, it is not feasible to rectify the problems in the available time of two months,” he clarified. “Though it was a big blow to Kanpur but sometimes such types of blows are a must for good things to happen. Despite the shifting of the Test, our number in the rotation list will remain on top.”The second Test of the two-match series will be played at Mohali from October 16 to 20.

Nasser Hussain is doubtful for the final Test at The Oval after breaking his toe while batting against South Africa at Headingley on Saturday.Hussain sustained the injury when he was struck on his left big toe by an inswinging Yorker from Andrew Hall during England’s first innings. He batted on Sunday with the help of pain-killing injections.There were suggestions that Hussain suffered the break when he kicked a dressing-room door in frustration following his first-innings dismissal by Jacques Rudolph. “There are various conspiracy theories doing the rounds but it’s straightforward – I got hit by Hall," Hussain told Channel 4. "If I had kicked a door it would have been right-footed.”

The South Australian Women’s Cricket Association has named a team of 12 to play New South Wales this weekend (December 6 and 7) at Bowral Oval.Australian vice-captain and 2003 Women’s Cricketer of the Year, Karen Rolton, is again captain of the State side, with SACA school cricket officer Shelley Nitschke named as vice captain.The squad sees the State debut for 18-year-old medium-pace bowler Neisha Iles and 19-year-old batter Rebecca Pollard.Also making her debut for the South Australian side is former England squad member, Caroline Atkins. The right-handed batter moved to Adelaide this year to further her cricketing career with the Scorpions.The Scorpions team to play NSW is:

Karen Rolton (c)	Julie Woerner
Shelley Nitschke (vc)	Caroline Atkins
Kris Britt	Rebecca Pollard
Lauren Ebsary	Neisha Iles
Jo-Anna Kenney	Olivia Magno
Emma Sampson	Heather Booth

This year also sees a new coach, with SACA cricket officer and last year’s assistant coach, Greg Quinn, taking over the mantle from Mark Sorell who was appointed as High Performance Coordinator within the SACA.

Only 14 hours after the 2000th one-day international concludes, the 2001st will get under way as Dhaka plays host to the TVS Cup – yet another triangular tournament featuring one team which exceeded all expectations at the World Cup, and two which flopped badly.Not surprisingly, most of India’s senior players have preferred to rest their weary bodies rather than slog through another ODI series. The absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra means that India will be without most of their World Cup stars – Tendulkar and Dravid made 41% of the total runs scored off the bat for India, while Srinath and Nehra took 31 of the 82 wickets.All this also means an exciting opportunity for some fringe players to prove their worth at the international level. Importantly, the new incumbents are all fresh from a successful stint with India’s A team in the West Indies: Gautam Gambhir and Abhijit Kale collected a bagful of runs, while Avishkar Salvi and Amit Mishra were the leading wicket-takers. Salvi was especially impressive with his ability to generate pace and bounce on the slow West Indian wickets. The lack of strong reserve strength has for long been the bane of Indian cricket – so if the current crop of youngsters put in a strong performance, India could gain plenty from a seemingly meaningless one-day tournament.The Indians will also be helped by the conditions in Dhaka, which are no different from those they experience at home. Sourav Ganguly did mention, though, that the absence of Andrew Leipus, the physiotherapist, will be keenly felt: “It will be hot there so we needed a physio like him.” Fortunately for the teams, all the matches will be played under lights.If the tournament presents India with an opportunity to build towards a bright future, then for South Africa it’s a chance to make a break from the past. Graeme Smith, 22, takes charge of a team which is still trying to shake off the legacy of the Hansie Cronje era. “My job is to instill freshness in the team,” said Smith, who made it clear that he wanted to distance himself and his team from the Cronje phase: “I never played with Cronje and so have no memories of him. That age is over.”Brave words those, but South Africa have the onerous task of filling the formidable void left by the retirements of Allan Donald, Jonty Rhodes and Gary Kirsten, and the absence of Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje. To make matters worse, Jacques Kallis was forced to withdraw to attend to his ailing father, though he is expected to join the tour later.The inclusion, finally, of the hugely talented left-hander Jacques Rudolph – one of six new faces outside the original World Cup squad – is a step in the right direction. Smith’s biggest test, though, will be his ability to carry along the remaining senior members in the party – Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher and Herschelle Gibbs.Bangladesh, who face India in the first match on Friday, are the third team in the contest, and barring a miracle, are likely to exit from the competition long before the final. Despite a miserable World Cup, where their only points came from a washed-out game, Bangladesh have included only one new face for this tournament – 20-year-old medium-pacer Tareq Aziz. That they have been forced to revert to tried-and-tested failures – Akram Khan, Mehrab Hossain and Javed Omar all make a comeback – indicates the lack of talent in their cupboard.The Bangladesh board did the inevitable by sacking their captain and coach, but the results with Khaled Mahmud at the helm are likely to be little different from those that his predecessor, Khaled Masud, experienced.SquadsBangladesh: Javed Omar, Mehrab Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Habibul Bashar, Khaled Mahmud (capt), Akram Khan, Alok Kapali, Tushar Imran, Khaled Masud (wk), Sanwar Hossain, Mohammad Rafique, Tapash Baisya, Manjural Islam, Tareq Aziz, Talha Jubair.India: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Abhijit Kale, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel (wk), Sanjay Bangar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Amit Mishra, Aavishkar Salvi, Sarandeep Singh.South Africa: Herschelle Gibbs, Graeme Smith (capt), Boeta Dippenaar, Neil McKenzie, Jacques Kallis, Jacques Rudolph, Andrew Hall, Mark Boucher (wk), Shaun Pollock, Robin Peterson, Paul Adams, Allan Dawson, Charl Willoughby, Mahkaya Ntini.