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Sachin Tendulkar, who will play his 400th ODI when he walks out against Australia in Vadodara, has reacted to comments by Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, that nobody could take their place in the side for granted by saying performance should be the criterion for selection.”Performance, not age should be the criterion… I don’t wish to join in any debate, but what I’ve said is what I believe in,” Tendulkar told the Kolkata-based .Vengsarkar had sent out a warning to the senior players to raise their game when he said youngsters like Suresh Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath were waiting for a chance. Unhappy with Vengsarkar for talking to the media about players, the Indian board cautioned him not to speak openly about players and to restrict his remarks to concerned individuals.In the first four ODIs, Tendulkar made 138 runs at 34.50, including top-scoring for India in their eight-run win in Chandigarh. In the same number of matches, Rahul Dravid scored 44 at 14.66, while Sourav Ganguly only batted in the fourth ODI where he scored 41.

Queensland will gain more than 600 games’ worth of first-class experience for their Pura Cup match against Western Australia this week, with Martin Love, Andy Bichel and Michael Kasprowicz all set to return. The Bulls have chosen a 13-man squad for the game that begins in Perth on Friday.Love will be making his first appearance after having a knee reconstruction in January, while Kasprowicz and Bichel both returned from injuries during the weekend’s tour match against the Sri Lankans at Allan Border Field. Kasprowicz is Queensland’s leading Pura Cup wicket-taker of all time and Love is the leading run-scorer, giving a major boost to what had been an inexperienced Bulls line-up.James Hopes is also set to play after he suffered a hamstring injury during his successful ODI trip to India. The Bulls have named a 12-man squad for the FR Cup clash that follows the Pura Cup match on Wednesday.Pura Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), Ryan Broad, Martin Love, Clinton Perren, Chris Simpson, James Hopes, Aaron Nye, Andy Bichel, Ashley Noffke, Chris Hartley (wk), Michael Kasprowicz, Daniel Doran, Grant Sullivan.Ford Ranger Cup Jimmy Maher (capt), Ryan Broad, James Hopes, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Chris Simpson, Aaron Nye, Nathan Reardon, Ashley Noffke, Chris Hartley (wk), Michael Kasprowicz, Grant Sullivan.

Tactic of the day
It was the 83rd over and Anil Kumble brought Sourav Ganguly into the attack. Munaf Patel had bowled just one over in the morning and the immediate reaction was that he was going to change ends, with Ganguly just slipping one in before the new ball arrived. Three balls later, Kumble walked up to the umpires, had a short chat and out came the new ball. There was some suggestion that the ball going out of shape had caused the early change but the result was immediate. Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s most dangerous batsman in the match, thought it best to take Ganguly on and ballooned a catch towards midwicket. Mohammad Sami fell two balls later and the match was well and truly headed in India’s direction.Ball of the day
So devastating was Shoaib Akhtar’s exocet to Rahul Dravid that it halted a giant Mexican wave in the stands. Few bowlers have breached Dravid’s defence but this one was near-unplayable: pitching on a good length, angling in from off and veering towards leg. Dravid proffered what looked like a compact front-foot defensive but the ball was too quick, and too crafty. Sneaking through the gap, it rocketed into leg stump and split the match open. As the crowd watched in hushed silence, Shoaib took off in his airplane celebration. The speed gun said but couldn’t quantify the ferocity that led to 45,000 being silenced.Cover drive of the day
Mohammad Sami was providing Shoaib with fine support at the other end. But Ganguly was in the mood for a counter-attack. Not afraid to go for his shots, he moved forward and caressed a full one from Sami past cover. Ganguly cut the mounting tension with timing so sublime, that he thought it best to hold the pose for the cameras. It was a while before the cover fielders moved too.Trip of the day
It’s disappointing to see a close appeal being turned down but Danish Kaneria found himself flat on the pitch by the end of it. He’d bowled a quicker one, forced Tendulkar on the back foot, and hurried him. If not for an inside edge onto the pad, Kaneria would have had a wicket. What followed, though, was comic. He turned around, waved his hands in a wild appeal and ran back, only to see his legs get caught in each other. It all ended with a mighty thud as Kaneria fell flat on his back. As he rubbed his head in disbelief, Simon Taufel, the umpire, let out a smile. Talk about rubbing salt in the wounds.Stoical quote of the day
Sohail Tanvir has enjoyed a fine debut so far, getting the wickets of Dravid and Ganguly in the first innings, but he didn’t think too much of it when asked about it. “The day a bowler says he’s satisfied about his performance, he’ll stop improving.”

Ross Taylor, the talented New Zealand batsman, is aiming for greater consistency as he attempts to overcome a bumpy ride since his heroics against Australia last summer. Taylor became a closely marked player after his 84 off 82 deliveries in Hobart and 117 at Eden Park, but he has managed only two half-centuries since the World Cup began.One of those came in the opening match of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy – he was 5 not out when the rain came in the second fixture in Sydney – and he is looking for another contribution in the final contest of the series in Hobart. “I want to be a more consistent in the next few games,” he told NZPA. “It’s been a big learning curve, there have been ups and downs. I’ve had a few more downs than I would have liked but you learn from that.”After making his dramatic introduction against Australia in Hobart, Taylor was whisked off to hospital. He was suffering extreme cramps and was put on a drip.”It was a high and low,” he said. “First bat against Australia, scoring 80, but at the same time it was quite scary not knowing what was wrong with my body.” A new diet and training methods have contributed to the pain not returning.Despite being dominated in the opening two games, New Zealand have a chance to retain the trophy and Taylor was not concerned about his fellow batsmen dealing with Australia’s attack. “A few low scores doesn’t make you bad players but a few batsmen are in some pretty good form and others aren’t,” he said. “We are all fired up for this last match.”Brad Haddin, the Australia wicketkeeper, is also excited as he takes over the gloves from Adam Gilchrist for the first time since the tour of New Zealand in February. Haddin has been a permanent part-time member of the side and has relaxed his attitude.”Five years ago I thought too much about it and it detracted from my performance, but these days I’m doing what works for me and everything will take care of itself,” Haddin said in the Australian. “I feel comfortable with my game at the moment, and I feel comfortable at this level.”

The foreign secretary David Miliband has given the strongest hint yet that the British government does not want Zimbabwe’s planned tour of England next year to go ahead, but he left the door open for Zimbabwe to be allowed to participate in the ICC World Twenty20 later in 2009.Speaking to , Miliband said government ministers would be holding talks with the ECB about the proposed tour in mid-2009 which, at the moment, includes two Tests and three one-day internationals, although Zimbabwe have still to regain their Test status.”The situation in Zimbabwe is obviously deeply concerning. I think that bilateral cricket tours at the moment don’t send the right message about our concern,” he said. “This is something that needs to be discussed with the ECB and others.”The key word used by Milliband is bilateral. It means that while the government would ban Zimbabwe from playing a series against England, it would allow them to take part in a multi-team competition such as the ICC World Twenty20.That solution would appease the government’s well-publicised conscience on Zimbabwe and also public opinion – a poll in The Guardian at the weekend showed 93% opposed playing cricket against Zimbabwe – but would avoid the tournament being moved abroad by the ICC with resulting massive financial losses to the ECB.Miliband’s comments follow a newspaper report last week which said Gordon Brown, the prime minister, was prepared to pull the plug on the tour, although his official spokesman said it is too early to make a decision. Any ban would be the latest snub by Britain to Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe.Brown stayed away from a key summit of European and African leaders last month in protest at what he said was Mugabe’s human rights abuses and responsibility for the country’s economic freefall.

The PCB is confident that the home series against Zimbabwe will go ahead as planned despite the recent political turbulence that has hit the country. There are likely to be, however, changes to the itinerary.”The series should take place on the same dates but there is a possibility of some changes being made to the venue list,” Ahsan Malik, the board’s spokesperson, told reporters after a board meeting.A board official is expected to contact the Zimbabwe board to discuss the itinerary and venues. Hyderabad has all but been taken off the list of venues to host the five-match ODI series, after the hotel the teams were scheduled to stay in was burnt down by rioters following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last week. The Indus, the only hotel in the city considered suitable for the purpose, was set on fire last week as violence erupted through the country after Bhutto’s death.”We will not be able to host any match [of the Zimbabwe series] in Hyderabad because there is no hotel in the city where the two teams and the officials could be accommodated after the burning of the Indus,” Shafqat Naghmi, PCB’s chief operating officer, earlier told .Naghmi said that the PCB will take a decision on a new venue for the first ODI within the next few days, adding that the match could be shifted to Karachi – which is hosting the second ODI – or Lahore, which was not on the venue list for this series.The burning of the hotel means that Hyderabad, once a Test venue, will once again be deprived of the opportunity to host an international match. The city’s Niaz Stadium last played host to an international game almost ten years ago when Pakistan clashed with India in the 1997 series. Zimbabwe are scheduled to arrive in Karachi later this month where they will play two warm-up matches prior to the ODI series.

The Pakistan-Australia series scheduled to start in March could be relocated to Australia if player safety cannot be guaranteed in Pakistan, according to a report in the . The paper quoted an unnamed Pakistan board member who said the PCB would consider swapping hosting duties with Australia.That would mean that if the switch went ahead the next scheduled Australia home series between the two sides, listed for November 2009, would be held in Pakistan. “It is only the last resort, only a worst-case scenario, but if something happens and Australia can’t come, then the board will discuss playing the series in Australia,” the board member told the paper.”If worst comes to worst, then perhaps [playing in Australia] is a better idea, as long as we swap. That would be an acceptable scenario. I would like the Pakistani spectators to watch Australia in their own stadiums, now or next year. But the first priority is that Australia comes here.”A neutral venue is out. It doesn’t help anybody to play at a neutral venue, if it is played in a third country those spectators wouldn’t be interested, and we would rather entertain Australian crowds than fans from other countries.”Pakistan are still keen for Australia to visit despite the political unrest in the country, and Cricket Australia are planning to send a security delegation to assess the conditions next month. Switching the games to Australia would pose logistical problems with most of the major venues packed with rugby and Australian rules football matches from late March onwards.Phil Jaques, who has twice toured Pakistan with Australia A in recent years, said the players had full confidence in whatever Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association decided. “There’s obviously a few issues there at the moment,” he told , “which Cricket Australia will have a look at closer to the time. Cricket Australia and the ACA will have processes in place and we will go by what they say.”I’ve been there before and people have always been good but they’re in a different time in their whole make-up at the moment with elections on. I was a little bit uneasy before I went I suppose but everything went to plan, everything went smoothly.”It’s a little bit confined to the hotel, that’s how we approached it last year. Generally speaking, the security is pretty tight and they give presidential-style security. The processes will be in place this time around, so we will see what the climate is like over there.”

Steve Waugh has said that England and New Zealand stand to lose the most from the rise of India’s official and unofficial Twenty20 leagues, as well as voicing his concern over the power of India’s administrators.Waugh was speaking shortly after Lou Vincent became the latest player to turn his back on New Zealand and sign for the ICL. “They have lost five or six players to the rebel Twenty20 and they can’t afford to lose their players,” Waugh said. “They haven’t got the depth. England are up and down, I’m not sure where they are going. Again, if they lose players to that rebel league it’s going to affect them.”You can’t have one or two sides dominating … no-one’s going to turn up and watch. If the rebel league continues, you are going to lose a lot of players from Test cricket and probably from county cricket as well because they are going to get offers, and that is going to affect English cricket.”With regard to India’s administrators, Waugh said they have power “because they have money and they have influence and they can determine what is being played where and against who. Whoever is running Indian cricket has a big responsibility to make sure the traditions of the game are kept as well.”

Peter Roebuck, the cricketer turned columnist, wrote recently about the two phases when a batsman is praised. “The first comes after a fellow has stroked a couple of boundaries as a teenager, whereupon he is proclaimed a genius. The second comes 20 years later, when a player long since consigned by even the gentlest critic to the rubbish dump manages to rouse himself sufficiently to push the ball around for an hour.”Neil McKenzie is currently experiencing the second phase. At 32, he was offered a last chance to play for South Africa and he has grasped the opportunity gleefully. Dearth of openers back home meant McKenzie was converted from a middle-order batsman to an opener, replacing Herschelle Gibbs in the line-up.The experiment appeared to be heading nowhere when he failed to go beyond 30 in the first two Tests as opener but two innings later he’s seen as someone who can be depended upon. Everyone knew about his shrewd cricketing brain, and a few others thought there was serious talent in there, but it’s only now that he’s beginning to look the part. A mammoth 226 in Chittagong could have been brushed aside as a one-off, but a fluent 94 on the first day of the series here showed his worth.The first ball he faced was turned away to the square-leg boundary, a start from where he didn’t take his foot off the accelerator. The first 20 runs came exclusively in fours, all struck with crisp timing, and he made the most of the errant length from the new-ball bowlers. He didn’t appear in any sort of discomfort against spin and even endeavoured to use his feet boldly.At the other end was Graeme Smith, his school-mate with a contrasting style. McKenzie himself was once seen as a potential captain of the side and the two seemed to enjoy batting together. Coming on the back of the 415-run stand in Chittagong, they obviously had plenty of confidence behind them.Has he had to change much after he converted from a middle-order batsman to an opener? “I think if there is one place that you want to bat in the subcontinent it is opening the batting,” he said. “So I have seen it in a positive way, I have seen it as a responsibility to see the new ball away. I am 32, and I want to enjoy my cricket and wherever they want me put I want to give 100%.”The fact that he’s at the latter stages of his career has obviously helped him enjoy his game more. “I think I played for five years when [I was] 23 after which I was left out for a couple of years. I love playing for South Africa, and would like to play for another couple of years, but am not taking anything for granted. I try to play every Test as if it’s my last.”For someone who used to cover his bat with a blanket and put it to sleep the night before he batted, McKenzie seems to have left some things behind. “I had certain rituals and habits which I followed before I batted but I’m 32 now, have a wife and a kid and there are too many others things to think about.”Bits of sagely wisdom frequently appear while he talks, and he turned a bit philosophical when asked about missing out on a hundred. “Test cricketers are really greedy guys,” he smiled. “At the start of the day I would have taken 90 gladly, but it’s never enough. I’m happy to get runs, but very disappointed that I missed out on a Test hundred.”There’s also a slightly mellow tone that comes when asked about his expertise against spin. “I have been around,” he says with the tone of a battle-scared veteran. “I’ve played against quite a few of the best spinners. Obviously there are world-class spinners here but I think it’s down to experience. There are footages and analyses that go along… you pick quite a few things along the way and with your team-mates.”There was a danger of him being remembered as a trivia question – which South African cricketer’s wife and sister are famous models? – but he seems to be determined to carve a niche of his own. By the look of his previous two innings, he’s getting things just right.

Scorecard
The Titans, after posting a mediocre 112 for 8, shot out the Lions for 81 to claim victory in their low-scoring Standard Bank Pro20 encounter in Centurion.The win gives the Titans, who were staring at elimination after three successive defeats, a place in the semi-finals.Superb new-ball bowling by Andre Nel (2 for 13) and Ethy Mbhalati (2 for 16) saw the Lions’ top order come undone as they crashed to 27 for 4. There could not have been a better time for leg-spinner Imran Tahir to be introduced, on hisPro20 debut, and he quickly ran through the middle order with 3 for 13. The Lions’ innings lurched to 51 for 8, before Cliffie Deacon and Friedel de Wet hit out with some meaning in a doomed attempt to save the visitors from their lowest ever total in the competition.The Lions’ dismal batting robbed Garnett Kruger of the glory after he had set things up with his spiteful new-ball bowling. Kruger came hard at the Titans batsmen from the outset, taking three wickets in his first two overs to leave the home side in tatters.But opener Gulam Bodi, who scored a patient 28, and captain Pierre Joubert, who took responsibility for the tail with his 22 not out, ensured that there was a score to defend. Kruger’s inspired bowling saw him take 4 for 10, while left-armer Deacon was a scrooge at the other end, finishing with 1 for 9.
Scorecard
Dillon du Preez’s late-order batting display, followed by a three-wicket haul from seamer Jandre Coetzee, earned the Eagles third place in the Standard Bank Pro20 series after their 13-run win over the Warriors in Port Elizabeth.du Preez came in at No. 7 in the 16th over and blasted a career-best 40 not out which featured two fours and four sixes. His knock took the Eagles, who were in shambles at 95 for 5, to a respectable 145 for 5. Roger Telemachus, who was unbeaten on 15, gave du Preez support in an unbroken 50-run stand that was brought up in 27 balls.The Warriors were rocked early in their chase, falling to 28 for 2 after a Coetzee double-strike. Riaan Jeggels tried to stabilise their innings with 43 off 39, but with wickets falling in regular intervals, the Warriors never reached boiling point, and they eventually dwindled to 132 for 8.The Eagles went into the match assured of a semi-final berth, but they needed a win to secure third-place.