In Adam Gilchrist, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kamran Akmal, three of the most thrilling batsmen of the moment are also three glovemen. Peter Roebuck reflects on the changing status of wicketkeepers, remarking that their current role is a far cry from the eccentric days of yore, when "one county keeper used to ignore anything down the leg side on the grounds that incompetence was not to be encouraged"

© Dawn

It's a lesson in what can go wrong with the best of grounds in the wrong hands. When built, it was a state-of-the-art sports stadium. But things have gone badly awry ... for example:

The ground has been treated badly over the last decade. In 1994, stagnant rainwater of surrounding areas was released on its outfield and nobody took notice of it for several weeks. It was drained out only when the press raised the issue and the entire outfield had to be dug out.

Ryan Hinds has achieved a remarkable feat: he is the first batsman in the history of West Indies cricket to make more than 150 in both innings of a first-class match.

In marching to another commanding 150 to add to his 168 in the first innings, Hinds became the first batsman in the long history of West Indies cricket to make more than 150 in both innings of a regional first-class match.

"It is a great achievement. I told myself just hang in there and get another hundred. I didn't know I would get 150. Praises to God for guiding me through this day. I'm very grateful," Hinds told NATIONSPORT.

[via Ryan]

Well, not strictly goalkeeping, but he's coaching Forest Green's footballers:

Forest Green boss Gary Owers told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "Jack has got an interest in the goalkeeping side.

"He is taking it very seriously and it is not a gimmick. Hopefully he can bring something to our goalkeepers and the lads like having him around."

Michael Holding reckons the Pakistan batsmen have been pampered by the flat tracks and don't know how to play close to the body. Not that the Indian top order were any better. Read his Telegraph interview

South Australia have an “Uncle Boof’ and a “Baby Boof” in their squad this season and the Darren Lehmann-Mark Cosgrove combination is turning around the state’s fortunes. Lehmann is interviewed by The Australian’s Andrew Ramsey and says that while he’d love to play for his county again, he’s happy having fun and scoring 956 runs in the Pura Cup.

At the start of the year the plan was just to help South Australia develop a team that's going to be pretty good for the future. I think we've done that. We're ahead of the game really, and we're playing a lot better this year than we thought we were going to. I've been lucky to get some big runs – 300 not out doesn't hurt your average.

Mike Atherton, in his Sunday column, chats with Michael Vaughan about Golf, leadership...and nerves:

Periods of the England captaincy brought on mouth ulcers and sore throats for me. Does Vaughan suffer any physical symptoms of stress? "Throughout the Oval Test I had a lump in my stomach. It was more than just the knotty feeling you get when you're nervous, and it just sat there and wouldn't go away. I didn't enjoy that match at all. I felt physically sick for most of it. I knew we hadn't got enough runs in the first innings and that it was going down to the wire."

Sunday is column day. Glenn McGrath is not worried about his form or the recent criticism of Jeff Thomson and Steve Waugh. In the Sunday Telegraph he also blames the media for focussing too much on results rather than processes.

To all the doomsayers out there, I have absolutely no doubt I'll be playing in next year's World Cup. The reason I say this is because I feel as good as I've ever felt.

Darren Berry, the former Victoria wicketkeeper, wonders in the Sunday Age about Australia’s 2007 World Cup attack and is not sure whether McGrath will be there.

Dennis Lillee aside, McGrath is the greatest fast bowler this country has produced. He will be an important part of the Ashes campaign next summer but beyond that is hard to predict.

Mark Waugh defends the mid-series rest of Ricky Ponting, his golf mate and former team-mate, in the Sun-Herald.

Ponting has been given two games off in the middle of the limited-overs series. So what? I say he deserves it and he needs it. I can't recall the last time Punter's name wasn't on the team sheet. Like Glenn McGrath, like Adam Gilchrist, he's only human and he needs to freshen up mentally and physically. I played 18 holes of golf with Ricky on Friday and we were half expecting photographers to jump out of the bushes to snap him selfishly enjoying himself.

I swear we've been here before. A lean spell for Glenn McGrath and the vultures start to circle. This time, however, there may be no triumphant riposte for his critics. "Nothing lasts forever. Every cricketer endures a bad patch," says Peter Roebuck. "But McGrath had already refined his game to its final point. There is nothing more to learn, nothing to add to his game."

It says something for Australian life, and particularly for its cricket, that the captain of Australia would come from a working-class suburb of a regional centre in what is by a wide margin the nation's smallest state, writes Time Lane in The Age.

Ponting might do well to make a frank assessment of his core cricketing and sporting beliefs. He might then pin his faith, and the fortunes and reputation of his team, in those, and be judged as captain on that basis.

Chris Cairns went the full distance in his cricket, from Black caps bad boy to senior statesman of the side, writes Geoff Longley.

Now he's one of our best allrounders. A cricketer capable of breathtaking efforts. Whether it was the rhythmical press of his bowling arm, an effortless skimming return from a distant boundary or a primitive onslaught with a bat he claimed attention. His journey hasn't been all plain sailing. Despite his athletic grace his list of injuries is like a lecture on anatomy. He missed almost half the tests he could have played.

For spin-bowling romantics, there will be a sense of excitement that the Luton-born 23-year-old Northamptonshire's left-arm spinner, a bowler of burgeoning artistry, could become the first Sikh to play for England in the land of his forefathers, writes David Hopps on Monty Panesar's selection for the India tour.

Frank Tyson finds the harassment and questioning of umpires "obnoxious".

The consequent frayed relationships between two of the leading cricket nations [Australia and South Africa] may result in future unpleasant incidents when the two sides meet in the second half of the rubber on the high veldt; but personally, I was of the opinion that most of the animosity occurred in the media, provoked some players' tongues into outrunning their brains and testing Cricket Australia's tolerance.

...The war of words between the South African skipper, Graeme Smith and Aussie leg-spinner, Shane Warne, in their respective newspaper columns, masqueraded as psychological "banter", until it descended into personal name-calling, at which stage Cricket Australia had to intervene.

Against bowlers of pace you can play with controlled aggression, for their sheer pace means you don't have to go hard at the ball. Click here to attend the Bob Simpson coaching session.

Twenty-over cricket is here to stay. People enjoy it. Recently a child said he liked Twenty20 cricket "because they whack it every time." So there is no need to be snooty, writes Peter Roebuck

A Twenty20 world championship may be slotted into the calendar as soon as next year as the format born in England continues to pass every test of its popularity, writes Richard Hobson in The Times.

Trevor Marshallsea, the Sydney Morning Herald cricket writer who reported last week Adam Gilchrist was headed to No. 7, writes the selectors backed away from a plan to remove him as an opener.

In the days immediately after Gilchrist went home to Perth for his break, following a golden duck in Australia's loss to South Africa on January 15, Hohns let the cat out of the bag by mentioning in conversation, firmly and clearly, that Gilchrist's time as a one-day opener had come to an end.

Every year McGrath goes beyond the age of 30, someone has invariably come out of the woodwork and informed us the Narromine pig-shooter has run out of ammunition … Last summer, Viv Richards tagged the fast bowler long in the tooth; this year Jeff Thomson says he thinks McGrath is past his best. It's a familiar refrain. The problem with all the theories is that McGrath is still the world's best fast bowler - bar none.

As the speculation surrounding Troy Cooley’s replacement as England bowling coach rumbles on,
Mike Selvey says in The Guardian that only a home-grown coach will do for the job. This would rule out South Africa’s Allan Donald, who has been closely linked with the role – but Selvey wonders if he has even got the qualifications to do the job.

The job as specified … goes beyond simply the needs of the England team. There is Academy work, time spent with representative age groups and around the counties. In real terms Donald probably falls down on three of the last four stated requirements.

Jeff Thomson believes Glenn McGrath is too old and his effectiveness is in doubt for the 2007 World Cup.

“I thought he was gone when we toured the West Indies last tour, but to his credit he bounced back from that,” Thomson said in the Daily Telegraph. “But I don't know if he can bounce back to his best. I think his best days are gone. He bowls tight but doesn't seem to be taking wickets. What doesn't help him is now Brett Lee is bowling better, and it makes McGrath look worse.”

Vin Maskell has had enough of TV's constant slow-motion replays, and questions whether cricket on TV is losing its appeal:

ARE cricketers really as obnoxious, overbearing and arrogant as they appear on television?

Does Brett Lee really have to do that mid-air kick or that chainsaw-pumping pantomime? Apparently so, but here's what we tend to forget: if Lee takes three wickets in an innings, he only does his party act three times. Not 10 or 20 times.

A-n-d n-o-t i-n p-er-p-e-t-u-a-l s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n.

Television directors love to convert a fleeting moment into something surreal. In doing so, television coverage makes sport and its emotions seem more important than they already are.

No, Geoff hasn't given himself an ironic middle name. Tim Fell, a Warwickshire supporter, has called on the public to avoid the bar at Edgbaston this season after the club announced they were banning people from bringing in their own alcohol:

Boycott the bar. That was cricket lover Tim Fell's cry today as he launched a campaign to save the tradition of spectators taking booze to Test and one-day matches.

Now Tim, a member since 1968, has urged fellow cricket followers to protest by boycotting Edgbaston's bars for an entire day's play during an England game this summer.

Spring clean: Andrew Strauss and Geraint Jones roll up their sleeves at Bexley CC © Getty Images

The ECB’s NatWest CricketForce project is about to get underway for the fifth year running … and it’s not too late to get your club involved.

CricketForce encourages the game’s enthusiasts to give something back to their local community club by volunteering to undertake major renovations to clubhouses and grounds, as Andrew Strauss and Geraint Jones did last year, when they helped to spruce up Bexley CC in Kent.

To see how your club could benefit from the scheme, find out more here.

What do Evo Morales, the Iranian government and the Board of Control for Cricket in India have in common?

Easy. All three are challenging the status quo and being condemned by the establishment and their minions for so doing.

Fazeer Mohammed in the Trinidad and Tobago Express defends India's stand on the Future Tours Programme,pointing out that the ICC are still in a state of denial about the transition of power.

Here we go again. Apparently, Ehsan Arain, curator at Karachi’s National Stadium, has already finalised two pitches which have much more grass and moisture than the ones in Lahore and Faisalabad.

Even Javed Miandad reckons it might help the bowlers.

There might be some grass on the wicket at Karachi’s National stadium, where the third Test will be played. In fact, the Karachi conditions traditionally favour movement of the ball, with the breeze from the adjacent sea playing a part.

Dennis Lillee has been helping Shane Watson, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, refine his action and he now believes Watson is good enough to get into the Australian side on his bowling alone:

"Shane came to me because he felt he had just lost the outswing we had developed before he was hurt and he sees it as being a crucial part of his game," Lillee said.

"It was just a matter of refining a few technical areas and fixing his body alignment on his delivery stride, because if you don't have that right you just cannot swing the ball, no matter how hard you try.

"Shane works extremely hard, Physically he's in great condition and by the time he left, the ball was coming out beautifully and he was swinging it consistently."

Isa Guha writes in the Bucks Free Press about her ambitions, on playing against Australia and her forthcoming trip to Lord's to face India

A dissident group of umpires were yesterday pondering the collapse of the Association of Umpires & Scorers special meeting at the Derbyshire County Ground on Saturday.

Hopley, a former association general secretary, said: "We're taking a couple of days to consider our options. Members were frustrated by a lack of proper organisation, which typifies the general council."

The 15 accused officers were also disappointed. Dave Brandon, facing a five-year suspension from office for witnessing a lease signature, said: "We would have preferred to have cleared the air."

Via the Daily Telegraph

Tanya Aldred of The Guardian had called it as the tandoori ashes and now a Pakistani, Dr Saeed Durrani of Islamabad, in a letter to editor in the The Daily times, Pakistani daily, suggests 'Rakhi', after rejecting words like Khak and Khakister. 'Rakhi' is a symbol of bond between a brother and sister and that raises the question which nation has been regarded as masculine and which feminine? Hmm...? Never mind, read the doctor's letter.

Cricket matches between India and Pakistan arouse great passions on both sides. Several prominent cricketers and others have suggested that these two start regular contests on the lines of the Ashes series of Test matches between arch-rivals England and Australia. The question then arises: what name should we to give to such contests? I considered – and rejected – words such as khak and khakister – for they are likely to prove difficult to pronounce for our Indian counterparts, besides being too Persianised. I then hit upon the idea of conferring upon these series of Test matches the Hindi/Urdu name Rakhi. This term not only resembles the word rakh (ashes) – but also denotes in Hindi a ‘bond’ that stands for love as well as protection.

The Indian board is handing over some money. Don't raise your eyebrows, only nine years have gone by since the 1996 World Cup. Surely that's not too far back?!

When Sourav Ganguly ran in to the middle with the drinks and was seen egging Mahendra Singh Dhoni,involved in a battle with Shoaib Akthar, some Pakistan cricketers couldn't let go the opportunity to indulge in a banter with the former India captain.

Harbhajan Singh joined the Pakistan team on Sunday to hear Maulana Tariq Jamil,a young preacher from the Tableeghi Jamat sect, speak. It has been a barren series with the ball for Harbhajan, wicketless despite rolling his arm for 59 overs.

The Australian’s Malcolm Conn can’t understand why Phil Jaques, who scored 94 on debut in Melbourne, has been dropped.

Add to life's great mysteries the non-selection of Jaques for Australia's next one-day match, against Sri Lanka in Adelaide on Thursday. His failure to be included in the squad following yesterday's meeting of the four-man selection panel appears to fly in the face of its most basic charter, to choose the best possible side.

Jaques postponed his bucks party, which was scheduled for last Sunday, didn't get to play, and left before the finish.

Richard Boock is full of praise of the just-retired Chris Cairns who, he considers, is a genius:

Say what you like about his temperament and injury record, his notorious battle with former coach Glenn Turner and his legacy of not quite fulfilling his extraordinary potential; at his best he was a genius.

Shaun Tait is recovering well from his injury and met Chloe Saltau in The Age:

"Coming back from injury, it's hard to know where you are. The selectors rang me up not long after the surgery to see how things were going but I'm not really sure, to be honest … My throwing at the moment is not 100 per cent, and they're not going to pick me if I can't throw.

"But if I get my throwing back in the next couple of weeks and bowl well, there's no reason why I can't get picked again."

Last week Shabbir Ahmed became the first bowler to be banned for 12 months under the new bowling review regulations. It is all rather complicated, and a mathematics and biomechanics degree wouldn't go amiss in trying to fathom what is going on. Here, Stephen Brenkley talks to some of those involved in the process.

The Daily Telegraph’s Tim Morrissey complains about Glenn McGrath’s resting from his home-ground and asks Cricket Australia to revisit its rotation policy. “The decision robbed Sydney fans of the chance to see a local New South Wales hero.”

Peter Roebuck praises Sanath Jayasuriya in the Sydney Morning Herald after his stunning century.

No pirate roaming around in the seven seas could have created more mayhem than did Sanath Jayasuriya at the SCG yesterday. He might as well have put a knife in his mouth, worn an eyepatch, raised the Jolly Roger and swung from the rafters and been done with it. Within a few minutes of his arrival on the scene, the bowlers were quaking in their boots. Nor did he content himself with a few shots across the bows. Instead, he slashed and carved and eventually grabbed a rope and took charge of the opposing vessel.

Stephen Brenkley writes an interesting article on Dusty Rhodes, who played once for England in 1959 and who was called for throwing:

Rhodes, who played for England in 1959, had his life changed forever on 7 May 1960. The umpire Paul Gibb no-balled him six times for throwing (imagine that now). "Until then, it had never crossed my mind. But that started it all off." The next year, he was reported after one match and called by Gibb again in another.

Mike Atherton comments in the Sunday Telegraph that modern players are increasingly ignorant of the players that came before them. This was highlighted recently by Virender Sehwag. After his 254 against Pakistan, he admitted not knowing "Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad, the two Indian openers whose record opening stand of 413 Sehwag and Rahul Dravid fell three runs short of breaking." Atherton, a history graduate, feels the game's past is an important aspect of its future:

Therein lies the importance of an understanding of the past for today's sportsman. It won't make him a better player, but it gives him a link with both the past and the future; it provides some context and some meaning, so that, long after the bones have stiffened and the eyes have gone, it still matters. He is simply one link in the chain.

The Australians tend to look over their shoulder more than we do. The cult of the baggy green, the presentation of honours by former players, the lionising of The Invincibles and the custom by which a current player must give a talk on a former are all part of cherishing the past. They also go too far. When the 2001 Australians sat at Wimbledon in their baggy greens, it was enough to make you puke.

When the last two touring parties paid their respects at Gallipoli and the Western Front, they did so too conspicuously. Rather than respecting fallen heroes, it looked as if it was intended to polish their own image.

The Sunday Times have a "Big Interview" with Andrew Flintoff. Such gems include:

We enter the suburb of Bowden and his mind returns to a frantic afternoon he once spent in a park here with his pet boxer dogs, Fred and Arnold. Why did he buy two boxers? Because he read in some book that they are “alert and sharp with a lifelong puppyish behaviour” and thought it sounded a bit like him.

So he has just taken charge of them and they’re out in the park on this gorgeous afternoon when, wild with excitement, they charge into a stream and, wild with excitement, he followed them in. Why? He can’t explain it. It just seemed a good idea at the time. He was splashing around with the dogs, and having great fun until they spotted this guy walking a golden labrador and decided to take off. He pulled himself from the stream and set off in pursuit, but the dogs were all over the guy and going absolutely mental when he finally caught up. “I had to pull the pair of them off him,” he says, “but he couldn’t have been nicer about it. ‘That’s all right mate’, he said. I looked up and it was Roy Keane. He hadn’t a clue who I was.”

Shane Warne’s life really will be a soap opera when he makes a guest performance on Neighbours.

He has also defended international umpires, although he told ABC Radio their standards needed to improve.

Fancy your coach digging graves to make ends meet. Mike Haysman takes us through some of the most bizarre secondary careers of cricketers in the 'less fortunate' era. Where would life be without cricket, you'd have to wonder...

Many to this day will have nightmares of what could have been. Often as a fledgling sportsman trying to make the grade, you are forced to roll up the sleeves and seek employment to make ends meet whilst spending whatever spare time you have forging a career in your chosen sporting field. Often that secondary career choice is suspect.

Phil Jaques is a fine batsman and much more can be expected from him. Like Hussey, he is no flash in the pan but a proven stayer whose time has come, writes Peter Roebuck in The Sydney Morning Herald.

As Phil Jaques and Damien Martyn walked to the crease under the closed roof at Telstra Dome, they could hardly have anticipated the different fates that awaited them. Martyn, the seasoned campaigner, must have been hoping for a repetition of the panache produced in the comedy cricket match played in Brisbane. Jaques, the newcomer, must have been hoping for a convincing start to his 50-over career.

Nari Contractor looks back at the 1960-61 series he played against Pakistan and talks about the pressure of playing against the arch-rivals.

Peter Roebuck criticises the pitch at Lahore and hopes Faisalabad doesn't present a curate' egg.

Bland surfaces drain all the life from the contest. A restaurant that serves only dull curry will not last long. Honesty is needed or the game cannot progress. Let's face it, the Lahore Test was boring and the pitch was a stinker. It must not happen again or the series will be a dud.

It's not just the cricket press ... the lead editorial in the Daily Telegraph in London also takes a shot at the ICC.

The ICC must intervene, but not just to ensure players are paid. It should tell Zimbabwe's tyrant that until he stops abusing human rights and democracy, his country will be barred from all international cricket. Like the United Nations, the ICC is dominated by Third World countries. These have been reluctant to take a stand against a regime that is by any objective standards as brutal as South Africa's was during its ostracism under apartheid. The ICC seems unable to see how its craven and amoral behaviour is staining cricket's name. It should grow that spine without further delay.

Ah, rock stars, they can be a demanding lot. Specific colours of Smarties; special mineral water; white leather furnishings et cetera et cetera. But at least someone's got his priorities right, as Hello! magazine reveals. Top of Mick Jagger's list for the Rolling Stones' latest tour - and just think of all the things he could demand - is a TV for watching cricket. Good old boy.

Veteran warhorse Andrew Flintoff, 27, has been awarded a benefit this year, news which can't have come as much of a shock to the limelight-bathed allrounder, or indeed his adoring nation.

But one man wasn't expecting a similar announcement, having retired from county cricket a full ten years ago. Yet step forward 41-year-old Tony Middleton of Hampshire: the former opening batsman turned Academy Director has finally been rewarded by his county a decade after the original promise.

"I thought they'd forgotten," he said, "but it's a nice surprise." Bless him.

The turncoat turns for home. Troy Cooley, whose porn-star name belies his schoolmasterly appearance, talks to Brian Viner about his decision to part company with the England squad, and head back Down Under to help Australia prepare for the 2006-07 Ashes.

Michael Hussey could have been lost to squash as a junior. Fortunately, as Andrew Ramsey reports in The Australian, he stayed with cricket.

Squash was my big game, I played a lot of squash as a kid … I played at state junior level but I made a decision between cricket and squash when I was about 15 or 16 as to which one I wanted to follow. I loved both the sports, but it was the team element of cricket that appealed to me. The whole notion of winning together, losing together, celebrating together, commiserating together.

He didn't have a terrific tour of Pakistan, and by all accounts his new nickname - Shaun Noodle (geddit?) - won't be leaving him any time soon:

SHAUN UDAL was cruelly labelled "Shaun Noodle" in some quarters following his painful Pakistan pre- Christmas experience. But the veteran Hampshire spinner, 36, reckons the vote of confidence from the England selectors can help him prove he really is hot stuff.

England's women international, Isa Guha, recently returned to her roots on the tour of India and Sri Lanka, and tells the Ealing Times about a hot, noisy, daunting but exhilarating experience.

Salman Butt, the opener, and Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, who got engaged recently have said the ‘nikah’ or formal marriage will have to wait until after the 45-day cricket series concludes on february 19

VB Chandrasekar, national selector who is on his way to Pakistan to join the Indian team-management, said that he was surprised to see Rahul Dravid open the batting in the first Test. In an interview with the newschannel CNN-IBN he also talked about his role as a selector in the touring party.

Little surprised, yes. But from the outcome of what happened from the 410-run partnership, I think probably it was right and if India had batted first, I think the depth in the middle-order would have been so deep.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has blasted the pitch at Lahore and rubbishes claims that he had asked for a batting wicket.

I had asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) curator to prepare sporting pitches. ...In spite of my demands, if someone goes on and prepares ‘batting paradise’ wickets, is it right to put the blame on me?

Bob Woolmer, doesn't blame anyone. In his article published in The Indian Express he wrote, "Why blame?". After all, the ground staff are inhibited by two things: (a) the weather and (b) the amount of cricket played on the square." He went on to give reasons why Brisbane(Gabba) is his favourite pitch

R Mohan believes Ajit Agarkar is past his sell date in Test cricket and suggests alternatives.

The cynics believe that he is the highest paid Test under-achiever in the Indian firmament. ...The law of declining returns has caught up with him, much as it catches up with ageing sportsmen, most particularly with fast bowlers who lose the nip. To believe he can use the red ball to help Team India win matches is to believe in miracles. With the white ball that moves a lot more, Agarkar has his uses. To see him continue in the Test arena raises the question of whether the nation has any pace bowlers of caliber at all.

Australia’s desperate search for an allrounder this summer may have overlooked Brett Lee. The Australian’s Andrew Ramsey writes Lee is eyeing a maiden Test century after his career-best 57 in the VB Series against South Africa on Sunday.

I would like to be considered as a handy tail-end batsman and if that developed into a bowling allrounder then that would be great. That's definitely what I'm aiming at.

A club's cricket square near Cowbridge, South Wales, was vandalised last week, and the club is offering a £200 reward to anyone who can help prosecute the vandals responsible. Anyone with information should contact Cowbridge police station, quoting incident number 305.

Bob Simpson, Australia's former coach, has taken aim at Ricky Ponting and Australia's attitude towards sledging which reminds him "of the behaviour of small children and the bravado they use to disguise their own fallibilities".

"While present-day cricketers promote the need for the spirit of cricket to be adhered to, many of them do not follow in action this norm, which they publicly endorse in words," Simpson said.

"This, of course, not only includes sledging but excessive appealing, disrespecting the umpiring decisions and using their well-paid, generally ghost-written columns to bait opposition teams and players.

"I find all of this rather distasteful and not in the better interests of the game.

Ponting isn't the first (or the last, no doubt) to come under Simpson's scalpel. South Africa's captain Graeme Smith was attacked by Simpson last week who, he felt, had a "wandering mind," advising Smith to lead more "with his bat and less with his mouth".

Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Dilip Vengsarkar, former India captains, are shocked that Virender Sehwag hadn't heard of Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad, who hold the world-record opening partnership. Pataudi in his column in DNA, the Mumbai-based daily, wrote, "...that Sehwag had never heard of Pankaj Roy [India’s first captain from Bengal] or Mankad, an all-rounder in the same league as Kapil Dev, is very disconcerting. I can only hope that it is an example of some obscure humour".

Dilip Vengsarkar is shocked. "That Sehwag doesn't know who Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad are, is nothing short of shocking. It shows the growing lack of knowledge and awareness about Indian cricketing history and tradition. We knew of them since our teens. It was told to us by our coaches. It was the Mumbai tradition."

Vengsarkar had mooted a theory paper at the National Cricket Academy which dealt with Indian and world cricketing history. "We would grade the players on the basis of what they knew. It helps inculcate a regard for history."

Pataudi also offers a similar suggestion. "If this [Sehwag's comments]is true then are we to assume that today’s cricketers are so ill-informed and uninterested in the traditions, and history of the game. If that is so, Chappell had better introduce another element into their daily regimen of practice and push-ups."

However, Ramachandra Guha, the social and cricket historian, has an alternate view. "The remark [Sehwag's] was in perfect innocence. It says a lot about the man," argues Guha, adding that the aspect has a lot to do with the geographic democratisation of cricket in India.

"Previously cricketers came from the main centres and they were schooled in this knowledge of cricketing history and cricketing deeds, mainly statistical. Dravid in Karnataka was told about Viswanath, Tendulkar about Gavaskar and Gavaskar about Vijay Merchant. It is not so much in the case of the Sehwag's and the Irfan Pathans," he says. "They play the game for its sake and nothing else."

His quick eye just allows him to hit the ball on the up. He was late-cutting even fast bowlers and it was quite amazing to watching him pick his spot for the endless boundaries he hit. My standout shot was off Rana Naved, when he hit a perfect good length ball for a straight drive. It went like a bullet to the fence and nobody, including Sehwag, moved.

Sunil Gavaskar is all praise for Sehwag and Dravid and believes India might well have hit upon a opening pair to reckon with.

It’s a perfect combo as well. For, if there’s an attacking player at one end there’s rock solidity at the other end. So, on the one hand the bowlers trying to blast their way find a steel wall to get through and at the other end they get hit back as fast as they bowl.

Trevor Chesterfield recalls listening on crackling radio in faraway New Zealand as Indian openers set the record.

...The commentary kept on fading. There was a jaunty sound from the Madras commentator. The end of Day One: a century for Roy and one for Mankad. India 234 without loss. Kiwis being roasted in the Madras dust. Fortunately Day Two coincided with a move into digs and, with batteries charged, able to listen to the continued torture. ...For a brief while the record was under siege; happily history turned its back on this latest effort. It wouldn’t have quite been the same.

Also read a tribute piece on the famous partnership

IS over-appealing leading to the spate of very poor umpiring decisions in international matches over the last 12 months? Bob Simpson answers the question in his column

There is no doubt that the players are less respectful to umpires than they once were. Perhaps this is because the changing world we live in is less respectful to authority in general. I wonder if bowlers who are verbally happy to chirp at umpires with such cracks as `Are you blind?', `How could you make that decision?', would enjoy it if umpires, after a bad ball, said things such as `Call yourself a Test bowler'? `Hell, my grandson is more accurate than you' or `What a lot of rubbish, how on earth did you get into the Test side?'

Rohit Brijnath agrees with Simpson and appeals for cricketing decorum, targeting Australia in particular.

Certainly a team must express itself, but neither must it believe that winning makes any behaviour acceptable. For a decade, Australia's team has personified cricketing excellence, their play a triumph of discipline, desire, talent and courage. But leadership in sport is more than swinging a bat and hurling a ball.

Shoaib Akhtar in a bid to maintain his fitness at the optimum level and avoid any foot injuries uses specially made boots, each pair costing 500 pounds (about 53,000 Pakistani rupees), and he carries five pairs in his kit bag.

There’s a scientific explanation for Virender Sehwag's return to form.
It’s a simple schoolyard exercise devised to test and sharpen reflexes. But Ian Frazer, India’s biomechanist, has a more respectable name for it: Repositioning, or "neural stimuli". Frazer, with physio John Gloster and trainer Greg King, has been working hard on the opener’s batting over the past few weeks.

A 15-year-old cricketer from Australia was bitten by a brown snake last Thursday, and the following morning promptly took a hat-trick in his first A-grade game:

He said he was tidying up around the nets before Thursday night training when the snake bit him.

"I didn't know I had been bitten at the time but about an hour later I looked at my ankle and saw it had swollen up," Grant said.

[...]

Grant made a less-than-spectacular start, watching his first ball soar over the fence for six, but things soon turned around.

With the last three balls of his second over, Grant knocked over three Noorat batsmen, giving him the rare honour of a hat-trick in his first A-grade game.

Clayton Murzello, sports editor of Mid-Day, the Mumbai-based daily, looks back at the world-record opening partnership of 413 between Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad in 1955-56 that Sehwag and Dravid came within an ace of breaking. Murzello wrote the tribute ten days earlier, not expecting the run-orgy by the Indian openers. Polly Umrigar, the former Indian captain who was there when Pankaj and Mankad tormented New Zealand, gives an eye-witness account. "Both played their shots and showed how determined they were by not giving their wicket away. Of course, Vinoo had his own way of going after the bowling.". Click here to read the tribute. And read Raju Bharatan's, the veteran Indian journalist, article on Pankaj Roy to get know more about the former Indian opener.

Waqar Younis is fuming. Reason? The Kookaburra ball being used in the India-Pakistan series. "The seam sinks after the first eight-ten overs and there’s nothing for the bowlers... Obviously, it gets worse on wickets such as the one prepared at the Gaddafi," Waqar told The Telegraph, the Kolkata-based daily. "The Boards should look at using the Duke [manufactured in UK] or even the SG-Test [made in India] balls... The seam is prominent and visible for much longer. Then, the balls stay harder for a longer duration and even the batsmen won't complain."

And how would have he fared against Virender Sehwag on such a flat track? "If I did, I would have had to wear a helmet... He’s amazing... He just punches and the ball is past the boundary... As he doesn't use his feet, he’s best equipped to negotiate the reverse swing..."

In an interview, Waqar picked his top 6 bowlers
Click here to read his picks.

Sanjjeev Samyal of Mid Day, the Mumbai-based tabloid, had a practice session with a local club to understand the nuances of tape ball cricket, which is a rage in Pakistan.

Bollywood v Cricket
Pakistan’s love and craze for Bollywood and Indian tele-serials continued even as the Indian team is there on a 45-day tour to play three Tests and five one-day internationals. English and Urdu newspapers in Pakistan are everyday splashed with photographs and write-ups on Indian cine actors, with Aishwarya’s photographs often featuring on front pages! Click here to read a writeup on the issue

Wasim Bari, former Pakistan wicketkeeper and current chairman of selectors, appears to be floored by Rahul Dravid. And by the description of the events, it didn’t take a Herculean effort from Dravid. Bari is quoted as saying in India Abroad News Service, “He [Dravid] looked a very educated person to me. The other day he saw me and came over to me on his own and said 'How are you Baribhai?'," Bari told his fellow selector Iqbal Qasim during the first India-Pakistan Test at Gaddafi Stadium here. "It was nice of him to come and ask my well being. Normally, you do not find such players these days. I found him a decent person, unlike normal cricketers".

The ECB’s goal of England becoming the world’s best team by 2007 will probably elude them because they don’t have a quality spinner, says Vic Marks. His piece in The Observer deals with the history of spin - and its importance.

The Newkerala reports that "most" of the Indians travelling to Pakistan on so-called "cricket visas" aren't there to watch the cricket at all. They're more interested in the food, history and meeting relatives and so on.

The News quoted an Indian national who came from Delhi with his wife on “cricket visas” after purchasing tickets on the Internet as saying that many of the Indians coming to Pakistan were not interested in going to the stadiums and more keen on sightseeing, eateries or visiting friends or relatives.

“Most of these people prefer to visit the historical sites, eateries and meet friends and relatives instead of coming to watch the matches,” he reportedly added.

The ramifications of the departure of
Andy Moles as Scotland’s coach continue to rumble on, with a report in the Scotsman on Sunday claiming that he was sacked rather than resigned, as Cricket Scotland’s media department maintain.

Following the blandest of media releases on Friday, no-one at Cricket Scotland appears to have been able to give a firm reason for Moles’s departure and few seem to believe that it was of his volition.

But the article by William Dick indicates that it might not have been because of player unrest, as most reports have suggested. “It has emerged that there were concerns about various aspects of the coach's performance from early in his reign, begging the question why it took bosses so long to act.”

R Mohan, the veteran Indian journalist, has eulogised Rahul Dravid’s decision to open the batting, calling it an "unselfish" move. Why? "To send Ganguly out to open against Shoaib Akhtar even on this most placid of Lahore pitches would have been sadistic oneupmanship. Regardless of the controversy over Ganguly’s inclusion in the squad, what could not be lost sight of was that team interest could not be sacrificed even as all and sundry kept putting their oar in troubled waters"

Greg Chappell has meanwhile said the opening decision will be reviewed match by match. "I thought the decision of Rahul [Dravid] to open the innings was a courageous one. He made a bold statement not only to the opposition but his own teammates that he will lead from the front. It was a calculated risk that we have taken".

Pakistan have no such worries. Bob Woolmer has given his vote of confidence to Shoaib Malik, the allrounder, to continue to open for Pakistan in the next Test. Woolmer was quoted in the Jung as saying, "There has been a lot of speculation about Pakistan’s opening pair. Shoaib Malik was chosen because he is less likely to get out caught in the slips. For some reason everyone in the media thinks he is more likely to get out caught in the slips. I’m not denigrating any of the past openers we’ve had but they used to get out caught in the slips. Over a period of time in Test history a lot of openers got out caught in slips and I know because I was one myself. Malik is a very fine cricketer — he is a three in one cricketer.
"He can bowl off-spin very well, he is a very fine batsman and he is a brilliant fielder. He doesn't have a permanent place in the side but I think he has done very well against England and batted very well here too. Quite frankly he is a very fine cricketer so let us cut this speculation."

PCB definitely doesn’t see it red. The Pakistan Cricket Board is all set to send a proposal to the ICC asking it to seriously consider the use of either orange or yellow coloured balls in Test cricket so that play can go on unhindered even in artificial light. Speaking to reporters Shaharyar Khan, PCB chairman, said, "This is a possibility and it will make it easier for the batsman to sight the ball. It is true that it becomes difficult to sight the red ball in such conditions and under lights".

All quiet at the Indian front

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has banned Indian players from getting into exclusive contracts with the media. No more direct exclusive quotes for television or columns in newspapers. Announcing the directive Sharad Pawar, BCCI chief said, “We had a meeting with the players on Friday and have informed them that except for the captain or one representative chosen by them; no one else will talk to the media”. Virender Sehwag, who wrote a column in English was sent a letter asking him to refrain in the future. A working committee meeting has been called for on January 23 where the issue will be discussed and a decision taken on whether to allow the playes to sign exclusive contracts.

Lahore, a maidan view
Lahore, which has given Pakistan 10 captains, holds a significant place in Pakistan cricket history. Mid-Day, the Mumbai-based daily, has a nice feature on it, tracking its history. Click here to read

Tax man comes knocking
The Press Trust of India reports that the Central Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has ordered the BCCI to pay Rs 3 crore towards its service tax dues for 1999-2000 to 2002-2003 by February 27. The BCCI is liable to pay Rs 11.19 crore as service tax for the revenue earned from advertisements and sponsorships from various companies for the Test matches during the period, Satyendra Singh, Commissioner of Central Excise (Service Tax) told PTI.
The commissioner said his office had issued show-cause notice to the BCCI asking the board to pay Rs 11.19 crore dues. However, BCCI filed an appeal before the appellate tribunal that stayed the order and asked the board to make Rs 3 crore as interim payment.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has appointed Mushtaq Ahmed, the legspinner, as the bowling coach of the senior team for the home series against India.

PCB seems to be getting its act together. After a bowling a coach, they are now looking to appoint a chief financial controller.

Fears that the ECB - and other cricket boards - would be penalised have eased, following a hearing at the Delhi Supreme Court last week. The ECB gave Sky, Britain's pay-per-view network, exclusive rights for cricket, ending Channel 4's six-year coverage and ending free-to-air cricket broadcasting for the time being:

The guidelines forced cable and satellite companies like Ten, ESPN-Star Sports and Sony, to share their exclusive rights with the national broadcaster Doordarshan so the public could have cricket free-to-air. It is akin to the British Government forcing Sky to share their exclusive ECB rights with the BBC without compensation.

Younis Khan, who continued his love affair with India with a 199 in the first Test, talks about his career, about coming back from being dropped and more. click here to read his interview in the Kolkata based The Telegraph

Sachin Tendulkar, in a lunch time chat with Dean Jones, talked about his equipment. Apparently he carries 8 pairs of gloves and 6 bats on tour. The main criterion of picking his bats was the feel of it. "I go by how it feels when I pick up a bat and the shape of it" He just doesn't stop there, scrapes the bottom of the bat handle, and has it tailor made for him. This brings me to this fascinating article by Sunil Gavaskar on bats.

At the highest level apart from the weight, pick up, balance, the grains on the bat face are important. The closer the grains and if they are about 14 to 18 grains then the longer the bat should last and that is what the professionals will use, especially those who do not have bat contracts. Otherwise in terms of stroke-making, the ideal number of grains on the bat should be about 8 to 10 and nicely and evenly spaced the better.

Javed Miandad is surprised by the reluctance of the Indians to go on defensive even when Pakistan was on top. Over to Miandad: "You cannot attack all the time in cricket. If things are not going your way, it makes sense to defend and frustrate the batsmen into making mistakes, and you can return to your offensive ways after dismissing them. It is critical for an under-the-pump bowling side to bowl on one side of the stumps and place the field accordingly. Kumble and Harbhajan bowled poorly, and they could have done much better, for there was certainly some turn in the pitch"

Remember, last time India toured Pakistan, there was a quote floating in the press, allegedly made by Miandad, on Irfan – "Your Irfan Pathans are in every galli and mohalla of Pakistan — we don’t even bother to look at them"’. And Irfan had gone on to torment the Pakistan batsmen in that series. Now Miandad takes time out to clear the issue, “I would like to clarify once again that I had never said anything of the sort. What I had actually stated was that it wasn’t easy to become an all-time great overnight. Irfan is a talented young bowler and will surely go places, but it is important that he has good support at the other end. He will improve by leaps and bounds if he gets a potent partner.

On the other hand, he will suffer if he is left to fight a lone battle. I thought India erred by not picking Zaheer Khan, for he is a wicket-taking bowler, and certainly more capable of troubling opposition batsmen on a flat track than Ajit Agarkar."

‘Ordinary’ – That’s the word most typed out in Krishnamachari Srikkanth's key board yesterday. The former dashing opener couldn’t control his disappointment at the Indian bowling performance. Click here to read his piece.

IANs reports that only 537 Indians have so far purchased tickets to watch the first Test at Lahore. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had earmarked 8000 tickets for the Indian fans for the entire series but have not found many takers. So if you have time and inclination visit www.pcboard.com.pk., the official PCB website, and buy your way to Pakistan.

John Wright has backed Sourav Ganguly, rubbishing most of Raj Singh Dungarpur’s comments on the former Indian captain. "He is a colourful man and is sometimes prone to making colourful statements. I saw the news briefly on the internet. I looked at it and said goodness gracious what is happening; because in India cricket almost follows you, in fact it haunts you," he told the Hindi news channel 'Aaj Tak'.

Asked if he thought Ganguly was a lazy fielder, he said, "That is Raj's opinion. I am not involved in that thought process. There were times when I could single out Ganguly and there were times when the same could have been said of [Javagal] Srinath and [Anil] Kumble".

Still on the topic, Deccan Herald, the Bangalore based daily, reports that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have asked TEN Sports to refrain from airing footage of the animated conversation involving Rahul Dravid, Ganguly, with Greg Chappell a silent by-stander, that set several tongues wagging on either side of the Wagah border.

Mike Marqusee, weeds out the hype, and plants the proper perspective.

Too often, the glittering prizes associated with cricket are used as an emotional proxy for Indian aspirations for global economic stature. The game is a symbol of new wealth, but also of enduring and widening inequalities. The special quality of cricket in south Asia is not, in the end, its function as a money-spinner but its role in popular culture, its street-level vibrancy. It may sound obvious but it needs to be reiterated that cricket was not invented in order to serve as a bandwagon for businessmen, politicians or military dictators. The game lives because it raises the universal joy of harmless play to a high level of technique and drama, because it displays so effectively the ever-surprising capacity and diversity of the human race.

Click here to read his article.

Whenever you watch a match involving Pakistan there will always be at least one familiar face in the crowd, the flag-waving Abdul Jaleel. He makes a living out of supporting Pakistan and receives a scholarship from the PCB for his efforts. Now, he has decided to write a book about his experiences. The English title will be, unsurprisingly, 'Flag Flying'. It is expected to hit the shelves in August - just as he will be following Pakistan around England.

No, we are not talking about Salman Rushdie’s book but Haroon Rashid, the former Pakistan team manager, who lost his job a year back. Allegations were rife that the nightouts of the then errant Shoaib Akhtar, a rumour of rape - which later turned out to be fabricated story - against one of the allrounders all led to the exit of Rashid. A year later, The Telegraph met up with him, and found him still cheerful. “Apne mulk mein yeh sab hota rahta hai... It’s part of the game”. He intends to apply for a coach’s job in the National Cricket Academy or in one of the regional sides.

Laptopless in Lahore

Mario Rodrigues, a correspondent of The Statesman, has been relieved of his laptop while gallivanting in a posh area of Lahore. The Jung reports that the sad incident occurred when Rodrigues was waiting for transport after coming out of a moneychanger to encash some foreign currency. A bike screamed to halt behind him, the snatch was done in an instant and the culprits zoomed off., with the victim not even managing to get a look at their faces.

Blood is thicker than Khaki

Two policemen have been suspended for security breach at the Indian team’s hotel. The crime? They allowed their relatives to sneak past the security cordon, and go to Sachin Tendulkar’s room for photos and autographs.

A discount and they still stay away

Despite the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) offering 50% of the tickets free of charge to the fans, not many turned out to watch the Test. It was the same story in 2003-04, when not many turn out for Tests. However, like last time, you can bet they will turn in large numbers for the ODIs. That's the version of the game that rules in Pakistan.

Images of what looked liked a heated argument, involving the usual suspects - Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell - were beamed in the television on day 1 of the game. Tongues wagged, minds tried to guess what could they have been talking about and newspapers have revealed that the discussion revolved around opening the innings and that Dravid wanted to take upon himself the responsibility of opening with Virender Sehwag. Chappell remained silent throughout, staring intently at Dravid’s face.

Pradeep Magazine, the sports editor of Hindustan Times tells us what really happened.

In the ground, Dravid told Ganguly that he need not open as he himself had decided to take the slot.

What the world saw was Ganguly, who was mentally prepared to open the batting after his skipper has told him about it earlier, telling Dravid: "You need not sacrifice your position for me as I am ready to open". Sources said Dravid replied that he had batted on several occasions when the score was 0 for one, so it was no big deal "for me to open".

The story would have rested there. But it seems that when a Ten Sports employee went to Chappell to confirm whether a sheet of paper that showed Ganguly opening was correct or not, the coach cut out Ganguly's name and put it at the No. 5 slot.

Ravi Shastri is not a happy man. Sourav Ganguly’s inclusion in the side has left him stunned, though he doesn’t believe there would have been any pressure from Sharad Pawar, the board chief. However, he sees the weak hand of the Indian think-tank. "… that's the team management's decision. If you ask me for my choice, he would not have fitted into my XI. I think it's a weak decision. I think it’s short sighted and if you are looking into the future of Indian cricket, I don't think this is a wise decision as well. Because, if he is going to open the innings, what have you taken three specialist openers there for?

"If Sourav Ganguly should have played in the side, he should have replaced Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj Singh or Laxman. Tell me who will you drop amongst these?"

Strong words… but time here for an old trivial story. When Ganguly made his Test debut against England in 1996, Shastri had fumed at the selection, hinting at zonal politics. Ganguly went on to have a bumper series then. Can he repeat the act?

"Telstra Dome's debut as an open-air cricket venue threatened to dissolve into farce last night," writes Nabila Ahmed in The Age, "with the roof opened, closed and opened again in a night of confusion caused by a massive shadow across the ground."

The speculation over the possibility of Shane Warne returning to one-day cricket continues. "It appears Warne would like to return to the one-day arena for the big event but wants to declare his hand in his own time," writes Tim Lane in The Age. "It's not clear yet whether the chairman of the panel, Trevor Hohns, is close to tearing his hair out."

Wasim Akram's solicitor has rubbished the statements of Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum, who in an interview with Cricinfo had said a "soft corner" for Akram might have influenced him while handing out a lenient punishment in the match-fixing case

Wasim's solicitor, Naynesh Desai, responded to Qayyum's comments: "It beggars belief that he can say something like this six years after the event. He is not suggesting that Wasim lied to him, but that he had let him off because he liked him. It looks like the judge is peeved about something and he is having a pop at everyone. How can he help Saleem Malik on his appeal when he banned him from the game in the first place?"

Click here to read the article by Angus Fraser

Lose money if Tendulkar scores

The word is out that India will win the first Test! No, it's not a Cricinfo expose on match-fixing but what punters in Raipur in central India are predicting. India Abroad News Service reports that the bookies have collected bets worth a whopping Rs 560 million ($12.72 million) and the amount is expected to go past 700 million by the time the match ends. Raja, a top punter, is quoted as saying, "The betting money has come from 22 centres of Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Chhattisgarh".

Sachin Tendulkar, the safest bet in the past, is not finding many takers this time. "Market has shown good response for Dravid and Dhoni but people are reluctant about Sachin," another punter said. Apparently bookies will lose 80% if Tendulkar hits a ton. Hmm... how the wheel has turned...

The little big man

Meanwhile, Tendulkar, who is 1.6 metres tall, has asked for larger sightscreens! Salim Altaf, director of cricket operations of the Pakistan Cricket Board, is quoted by Reuters as saying, "They [Indian team management] have said that Tendulkar has asked for the changes because he feels he might not be able to sight the ball leaving the bowler's hand properly in the backdrop of the current sightscreens ". Wonder whether the punters know about this...

Ganguly or Chappell?

Imran Khan, writing in the The Hindu bats for Greg Chappell: "Plenty has been written about the Sourav-Chappell politics and I simply don't know enough to comment. However, I have known Greg for a long time now, and he is a straight-talking guy. That's a trait that can land you in hot water every now and then, but it also means that he is an honest, hard-working, committed individual. Few people know more about strategy and pressure than Greg, and his batting pedigree is beyond question. If you judge a coach by his credentials, then few in world cricket can be compared to Greg."

Politics and cricket on the menu

Cricket diplomacy rolls on. Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, will meet up with President Pervez Musharraf on Friday. Pawar, also the federal minister for agriculture, will be the first senior Indian cabinet member to call on Musharraf in recent times. The Press Trust of India reports that Indian players, with exclusive contracts with television channels, will besiege Pawar with requests to allow them to honour their contractual obligations. As per the new BCCI directive, all players have been told not to talk to the media on an exclusive basis, even to those with whom they have a contract to do so. Money talks, exclusively.

Incredible!

'Incredible'! - that is Nasser Hussain on the inclusion of Ganguly in the team as an opener. The exclamation mark does no justice to the former England captain's reaction on air. He rolled his eyes, shook his head and one needs to visualise cartoons where adjectives roll out as texts inside big bubbles. Imran Khan, sitting beside Hussain in the Ten Sports studio, is of the opinion that Rahul Dravid, better equipped technically, should open.

And then there were 30

NDTV reports that the first batch of Indian fans, numbering 30, crossed over to Pakistan on Thursday. Twenty six of them preferred the land route, crossing the Wagah border, while the remaining four had taken the train to Pakistan. Three hundred more Indian nationals are expected to cross over.

Peter Roebuck in The Age delivers his closing to the jury about Brett Lee's beamers and spares a thought for the victims who have lived to tell the tale

Australia must think long and hard before including Brett Lee in its limited-overs team. So far, the selectors and board have been fortunate that none of Lee's bean-balls has caused permanent damage, but these deliveries are extremely dangerous.

One, two cha-cha-cha; three, four cha-cha-cha ... Darren Gough's Essex team-mates may not yet be too familiar with his dance moves, but that's all set to change. Amazed by Goughie's twinkletoeing and hip-wiggling as would make your granny proud - as indeed Nana Gough was - Essex have announced that they are to incorporate dancing in their preseason warm-ups. "It should improve our poise and balance," explained dance guru Ronnie Irani.

Nevermind the traditional Ashes, says Tanya Aldred. The clash between India and Pakistan is the real deal:

This time things are, if not normal, calmer. The third meeting in less than two years has produced shouts of overkill and greed from some quarters, though not many. The hype is still enormous but the posturing less ridiculous and the military similes are simmering nicely but not jumping out of the pot.

She does, however, remind us that there are but 315 days until England once again lock horns with the Antipodeans...

A butcher and an intelligent batsman

"He is a butcher", Imran Khan said of Virender Sehwag. Speaking on the news channel CNN-IBN, Imran dwelt on the contrasting styles of the Indian opener and Salman Butt, the Pakistan opener.

On Sehwag

"He reminds me of Gordon Greenidge who used to devastate bowling attacks. He hits the ball very hard with a short bat. He can play a match-winning innings anytime. I mean what he did to Pakistan in their first Test match, you know on the last tour of Pakistan, I mean that he just pulverised the Pakistani team. They never really could come back from that."

On Salman

"Salman Butt is a very intelligent batsman; I mean his maturity is beyond his years, beyond his experience. The sort of innings he played in Kolkata, the one-day match with Pakistan, I mean only a mature batsman can play that innings. And he does not have that experience as yet. So he is clearly a player who uses his mind. I think he is going to be there in Pakistan team for a long time. He looked better as the tour went on. He improved against England and in the end he looked the most set opener Pakistan has had for a while."

Imran went on to pick his top 6 in the batting line-up for the two teams.

Indian Top 6

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh

Pakistan Top 6

Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi

Tandoori Ashes

Tanya Aldred, writing in the Guardian, christens the Indo-Pak series as "The Tandoori Ashes". This time around, she feels it will be all about cricket, diplomacy being put on the backburner. "This time things are, if not normal, calmer. The third meeting in less than two years has produced shouts of overkill and greed from some quarters, though not many. The hype is still enormous but the posturing less ridiculous and the military similes are simmering nicely but not jumping out of the pot. Political tensions have cooled a little, especially following the earthquake last year."

A humbling experience and Sachin consoles Salman

And it's just not all cricket. The Indians found time to visit Imran Khan's cancer hospital, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital - the sole reason why Imran played the 1992 World Cup and where apparently "70 per cent" of the patients don't pay a Rupee. The players return humbled and moved. "I've gone to hospitals, but never to a cancer facility... It was a moving experience," says Dravid while The Telegraph, the Kolkata-based daily, reports a special visit by Sachin Tendulkar with Salman Khan, a patient. "I chatted with Salman for a couple of minutes... I know he's ill, but that I could give him some joy made me happy, too."

Ganguly or Yuvraj?

Moin Khan, who has warmed the spot behind the Pakistani stumps for a long time, takes time out to poke at certain Indian wounds. "If Ganguly is not picked for the first Test, I would certainly like to ask the selectors why they included him and made final selection difficult for Dravid. This will be an example of poor coordination between the selectors and the captain." Moin fires another dart, "I know both Yuvraj and Ganguly don't like to face genuine fast bowling and have exposed their weaknesses especially against short-pitched bowling." Ah! Moin rattles on, "Gautam Gambhir has a solid defence and likes to stay on the crease". Huh! That would have come as a surprise to Gambhir himself.

And the last word, actually a delayed soundbyte, goes to Dilip Vengsarkar. A couple of days back he was asked about the threat Shoaib Akhtar presents to the Indians and the former Indian captain shot back, "He'll be a threat if he bends his arm." Ouch....

Bob Woolmer admitted the series is affecting his golf © Getty Images

What impresses me is the lack of antagonism or violence between the supporters. There is no inane chanting as at a football match in England. Large queues have waited patiently for tickets all day in Lahore. Cricket, I think, is the most significant factor in creating a patient outlook on the sub-continent, in spite of matches between India and Pakistan leading to almost unbearable tension. The pressure on both sides is definitely doubled by a huge external force of expectation.

But he did warn that there was a danger of overkill:

Now it is felt that there is too much cricket between them. My own view is that they need to find the correct balance and I believe the way to do that is to mirror the England v Australia Ashes series: in other words, five Tests played every two years home and away respectively.

Bob Simpson, the former Australian player and coach, beleives South Africa would have to change their style of cricket if they hope to move up the ladder.

My assessment was based on their negativity and the inability to alter their tactics based on the changing circumstances of a match.

Following the banning of same-sex kissing at New Zealand cricket grounds, the excellent Beige Brigade ("It's About Passion. Not Fashion") are now running a "Pash for cash" scheme:

We’re encouraging all people to do a protest pash if they see themselves on TV at all during the upcoming NZ v West Indies cricket series. We will be giving out spot prizes to those involved too: ideas include Showgirls vouchers, cold hard cash, lip balm and Make Your Own Movie kits...

An interesting article in The Age profiles Usman Khawaja who, born in Islamabad, now dreams of playing for Australia:

Muslims are few and far between in Australian cricket. Usman has not come across any. Searching for an explanation he suggests: "Maybe they prefer park cricket. Maybe they don't think they can go all the way. Also, studies are very important in subcontinental societies." Luckily his dad was mad keen on the game. Usman says that he can watch him play all day and then go home and watch another match on pay-TV. His bemused son adds that it's better his dad watches cricket than play Pakistani music that forces him "to leave the room quietly". Usman is too good natured to be a rebel.

If you can't wait to get your hands on a ticket or two for the Ashes in Australia, The Times newspaper has come up with a handy guide on how to obtain them.

The stress of the Australian captaincy is taking its toll on their once baby-faced skipper, Ricky Ponting. He's getting decidedly thin on top, according to his team-mate, Shane Warne, who recently underwent laser treatment to stymy his own hair loss.

"A few of them have already come to see me," said Warne, who may have lost his role as a Channel 9 commentator, but has a shoo-in career as Advanced Hair Studios leading spokesman.

The Ashes might be 11 months away, but Cricket Australia already seems to be getting itself in a mess over ticketing. In The Times, Geoffrey Dean says that Australia are worried that too many English fans will buy tickets:

Officials here still have nightmares about the sea of red jerseys that made up the majority of the crowd for the Brisbane and Melbourne internationals during the Lions’ rugby union tour in 2001. The feeling is that there is enough demand from home supporters to fill the smaller grounds, such as in Adelaide and Perth.

The Daily Telegraph's Paul Bolton goes one step further, warning that England fans face being ripped-off. He quotes Paul Burnham of the Barmy Army:

What you are going to get is a lot of Australians who are not particularly interested in cricket, buying tickets and then selling them on the black market. The same thing happened in Barbados when the West Indies authorities said that only 40 per cent of tickets would be sold to English fans, but it ended up more like 95 per cent. The touts made a killing.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports on plans to expand TV technology ahead of the 2006-07 Ashes. It seems that many of the innovations used for Twenty20 will be tested. Heat-sensor cameras, scientific ball-tracking devices and "in game" player interviews are all being considered.

Steve Crawley, Nine's director of sport, said that the cricketers who were miked up during the Brisbane Twenty20 found the whole idea really interesting:

Our ultimate goal is to have the best cricket coverage in the world for the Ashes next year. We are working on technology that has never been seen before - some of it will come through, some of it won't. We're spending a lot of time on this. That's how big the Ashes are to us. There's scientific stuff with ball paths and a camera that shows heat off the ball. Real CSI stuff. It might come off.

First it was full-baguette cavity searches in Queenstown, now New Zealand's prude police are back out in force, as two women are threatened with eviction for snogging on the big screen at Napier. The incident has caused uproar, with one Kiwi MP declaring: "this is a human rights issue".

Of course it is! Move over, and let us all have a look!

Tim Hancock, the former Gloucestershire batsman, has signed for Shropshire:

It means the 33-year-old will carry a major burden of responsibility in the county having also agreed to become Wellington’s professional for their Birmingham League campaign.

Hancock played a huge part in Gloucestershire’s one-day success in the late 1990s and has scored over 12,000 runs in First Class and limited overs cricket.

Oh dear. The Aussies just can't get it right, can they? First their nicknames came in for a pounding, now it's the shirts they're printed on as noted by The Advertiser, an Adelaide-based newspaper. Now, The Surfer likes to try to stay clear from sartorial judgements as a rule, but this time the critics may have a point.

Australia's Nathan Bracken would like to see the introduction of ball boys to Twenty20 cricket, in the same way as they're used in Tennis:

Bracken said the introduction of ball boys would speed the game up even further with players not required to chase the ball over the rope.

"Because you're on a tight schedule, an hour and 15 (minutes) to bowl your overs, if you can get some kids out there to be a part of the game on the boundary and basically get the ball it would make it that little bit quicker," he said.

"It would make it a little bit more exciting for the crowd and gives the fielding side more of a chance to get through their overs."

Good idea, or utter laziness?

The Australian has an amusing take on the significance of Australia's first international Twenty20, but it also has a warning:

"The one thing international cricket does not need is further programming pressures, so leaving Twenty20 fixtures as a cash cow for the tiers below would ensure the golden goose ain't headed for the Colonel's deep-fryer."

"It is a reflection of Michael Hussey's unassuming nature that when he was told of his meteoric elevation to Australia vice-captain, he was dumbfounded," writes Andrew Ramsey in The Australian. "Upon being congratulated on his appointment by The Australian, Hussey responded with: "you are joking, aren't you?"

Malcolm Conn writes in The Australian on Warne's secret World Cup talks.

Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, believes that one-day cricket's SuperSub rule may be a way for Shane Warne to make a return to one-day cricket, but stressed that any comeback must be unconditional.

"If the size of a beer snake is any guide," writes Justin Norrie in The Sydney Morning Herald, "Twenty20 cricket has already won the approval of Sydney's sports fans."

Also in The Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck pens his account of Australia's Big Bash.

They came in their thousands, streaming through the gates, a mass of cheerful humanity lured to North Sydney by the lack of pomp and the chance to salute sixes or even to catch one and to claim the reward of a thousand bucks. They had smiles on their faces, wandered around in shorts and thongs, drank a lot and cheered every blow and every wicket. No one yelled, "'Ave a go, ya mug!". No need. Sixes came as thick and fast as jokes in a New York club.

Liam Plunkett, James Anderson...or both? That is the question Scyld Berry attempts to answer in his article at the Daily Telegraph, as England's selectors deliberate who to pick for the tour to India:

If England are to play to their strength, and field four fast bowlers in these first two Tests, will Liam Plunkett be sufficient as the only back-up?

He has surely taken over the No 5 spot because he has a wonderful temperament for a 20-year-old and he can bat. But is there space also for James Anderson, who is getting his rhythm back, and, if one of the Big Four dropped out before Mohali, would probably bowl better than Plunkett because he can swing the ball more?

There is an ACE cricket academy day at The Oval today, and the BBC have more on those involved. Their official site also has details of how to join, and upcoming events around Britain.

Shane Warne has said he'll quit cricket if his children are at all affected by his divorce with his wife, Simone.

Australia may have crushed the World, West Indies and South Africa this season, and unearthed a new-look middle order, but some former players including Mark Taylor and Michael Slater are concerned that the young talent is not coming through the ranks of domestic cricket.

Ian Chappell, Michael Slater and Mark Taylor have resigned themselves to what they insist will be an inevitable period of decline, with most present state players not good enough for the rigours of international cricket.

Emma Macdonald bemoans the fact the women find it difficult to stay on a level footing with the men as they move through the age group cricket teams.

The rights of the individual have been put before the interests of the team, says Peter Roebuck

Cricket in Afghanistan has a bright future, as The Observer Sport Monthly magazine reports.

OK, so we've had Freddie calendars, Freddie shirts, Freddie books, DVDs and even a threatened Freddie hit. But what next? Just what could be next?! Well, it seems that Freddie icecream is next, specifically Freddie's Glory which will be coming to, er, one good icecream shop.

Robert Craddock says in The Courier-Mail it’s time for Australians to dip their lids to Graeme Smith, a feisty captain and unifying influence.

Smith may be an occasional trash talker but the game is the richer for that. Most rival captains who visit Australia keep their tongues tied and their eyes down and end up being brutally nailed to the canvas.

Smith was aware of this and made a promise to himself he would go down swinging, or should we say sledging. It did not work but it certainly helped to generate a robust, competitive vibe among his team. World cricket is lucky to have him.

As has been mentioned elsewhere in the blogosphere, redevelopments for the construction of the Providence Stadium in Guyana are well on course for the 2007 World Cup. They have an official website, and a blog, both of which appear to be regularly updated.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey can hardly contain himself over Cricket Australia's latest marketing wheeze to use nicknames rather than player names on shirts for the Twenty20 clash with South Africa.

As Selvey (known in his Middlesex playing days as Walter because of the plethora of Mikes in the dressing room at the time) points out, nicknames are awarded by colleagues rather than invented by marketing departments.

It is a totally duff concept. Firstly, the whole point of putting names on the back of shirts is for identification. If you are one of the uninitiated you would not know Skinny from Latte. So you would need to look it up in your programme. Which defeats the object.

And he has a plan for the men who devised this:

I look forward to pictures of the twerps whose idea this was walking round the Gabba with 'Plonker' and 'Dickhead' inscribed on their backs.

Even by their own dismal standards, it seems the marketing men have excelled.

Read Tanya Aldred's spin in The Guardian on who would be worthy of their OBEs and MBEs.

Australia's captain Ricky Ponting for winning the toss and putting England in to bat on a good pitch at Edgbaston in the second Test while his top bowler Glenn McGrath was having his ankle x-rayed in hospital.

“If there are any doubters who believe Ricky Ponting isn't the best batsman in the world, try this one for size,” writes Jon Pierik in The Courier-Mail. "Ponting has averaged 64 in 101 innings at No. 3 - the toughest spot in the batting order by far."

Peter Roebuck dips into poor umpiring decisions and mounts a case for the third umpire in the Sydney Morning Herald.

A senior panellist had made a fourth successive error. Obviously these were not isolated incidents … Determined to recapture their aggression, Australia have been feisty all summer. No protection was given to the umpires until it was too late. By then the Proteas had decided to join the party ... Once appeals and words are not controlled, matters start to get out of hand.

Incredibly, it's true: you can now get a degree in the history of cricket:

The University of Huddersfield lecturer said the 12-week course was the first of its kind in the country. He said: "There are obviously courses about sport and sport history but we believe that no other course has focused on local cricket exclusively." Dr Davies investigated the sport for two years. "We've discovered so many amazing historical items – from bats and balls to old club minute books, photos and documents – that we want to share these findings with local history and cricket enthusiasts."

The weekly sessions will cover the origins of the sport, the first clubs, the impact of the world wars and advances in equipment among other things. They run on Wednesday nights from January 11 from 6.15pm to 9.15pm at the University of Huddersfield. Contact Dr Davies on 01484 472405 for more information.

Mike Coward praises Ashwell Prince’s century on day two in The Australian, his finest moment in Test cricket.

Prince did not just score a century. With great pride and conscientiousness he validated his nascent Test career, realised a dream he had dared to dream from boyhood and gave heart to those who have been criticised, if not ridiculed, for their unflinching commitment to fundamental change in South Africa's cricket in the new democratic republic.

Peter Roebuck also looks at Prince’s performance in the Sydney Morning Herald after detailing Australia’s “rash” response.

Not the least remarkable aspect of his batting was the calmness of his manner. Most batsmen enduring bad patches and dogged by ill-fortune bring baggage with them to the crease. Prince's approach is simple. He does not attempt things beyond his repertoire.

Just as everything was finally falling into place for India's tour of Pakistan another glitch has hit preparations...the team will have to fly economy. This shocking news comes because they are unable to secure a plane with club class seats. The next thing they'll be told is that there is only one pool at the team hotel.

Shane Warne was censored by Cricket Australia before a News Limited interview went to press on Sunday night. Jon Pierik writes that Warne’s comments about Graeme Smith were twice refined by CA officials and the legspinner has since been lectured by Michael Brown, the cricket operations manager. “Warne's line that Smith was a ‘motormouth’ who looked like a ‘fool’ was removed,” Pierik says.

The original version from The Courier-Mail is here.

It hasn’t been the best week for Warne, with The Australian, the national broadsheet, carrying a story that his wife Simone has started divorce proceedings.

Despite his recent struggles with form and fitness Chris Cairns is closing in on a memorable milestone. He needs one wicket to reach 200 in ODIs and 90 runs to reach 5000. Only Sanath Jayasuriya and Jacques Kallis have performed this feat before.

The current series between Australia and South Africa has certainly not been short of a word or two. Graeme Smith has made more of an impact off the pitch with his pre-match talking than he has at the crease with the bat. Now Kepler Wessels, the former South African captain, has warned him his tactics could leave him looking rather foolish if Australia continue to dominate the visitors.

I think it's a dangerous style. I think cricket history has shown that somebody like Tony Greig has been made to grovel and eat his words against the West Indies when he did the same thing. He was totally humiliated.

Eddie Barlow's death has deeply affected a number of Bangladesh's players, notably Habibul Bashar and Khaled Mahmud with whom Barlow forged close relations:

"Whatever I have achieved so far was because of that man. He gave me the mental support when my place in the national team was not even confirmed. I will always remember his words to the selectors that I have learnt afterwards 'Is Sumi in the list for the inaugural Test," said an emotion-chalked Bashar.

"Can you imagine a man seriously ill rushed to the ground only to see Bangladesh's practice match against Derbyshire. Honestly speaking, Bangladesh's cricket was in his heart," he said.

The Australian broadcasting company, Network 10, have been barred from shooting at any Australian cricket venues following the airing of Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith's dispute in the recent second Test:

Cricket Australia public affairs manager Peter Young said the network and all its staff had had accreditation stripped for the rest of the summer and it would remain revoked at CA's "absolute discretion.

Ten had filmed Ponting and Smith engaged in a lively discussion inside the players' tunnel after Australia had claimed victory in the second Test at the MCG.

With Channel Nine holding the exclusive television rights to broadcast cricket in Australia, Young said non-rights holders such as Ten were not allowed to shoot inside venues.

Mike Hussey's rise to prominence has been overwhelming, and he attributes his success to the amount of county cricket he has played:

He answers instantly when asked about the role county cricket has played in the rise and rise of his career: he scored prolifically for Northamptonshire and also had a brief stint with Gloucestershire before joining Durham.

"It's definitely helped my game a lot, particularly one-day cricket. They play a lot of one-day cricket over there in different conditions and against different bowlers," he said.